Three food pantries a few blocks apart in the East Village now hand out free dog and cat food alongside groceries. They are part of a new city program that began on October 19 at 22 city-funded pantries across all five boroughs, the first time New York City has paid for pet food at the pantries it funds.

The program was announced on October 15 by the Mayor's Office, the City Council, the Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare and the Department of Social Services. The city set aside $500,000 to stock pet food at the participating sites, so a household that already visits one of them can pick up food for its animals on the same trip.

The three East Village sites

Half of Manhattan's six participating pantries sit in the East Village, within about a ten-minute walk of each other:

  • The Father's Heart Ministries, 543-545 East 11th Street
  • The Lower Eastside Girls Club, 402 East 8th Street
  • Trinity's Services and Food for the Homeless, 602 East 9th Street

All three are east of Avenue A, the stretch residents also call Alphabet City. The closest subway is the L at First Avenue, and the M14A and M14D buses run along 14th Street a few blocks north.

Elsewhere in Manhattan and on Staten Island

The other Manhattan sites are Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Pantry at 296 Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, St. Clemens Food Pantry at 423 West 46th Street in Hell's Kitchen, and New York Common Pantry at 8 East 109th Street in East Harlem.

On Staten Island, the two participating pantries are Project Hospitality at 205 Canal Street in Stapleton and Feeding with TLC at 309 St. Paul's Avenue, both on the North Shore. The rest of the 22 are in Brooklyn (six), Queens (four) and the Bronx (four), and the full list is on the city's announcement.

Why the city is doing it

The pet food program sits inside a larger push on food access. Earlier this year the city tripled the baseline funding for Community Food Connection, the Department of Social Services program that supports more than 700 food pantries citywide, and the city and Council set aside $78 million for food distribution in the 2027 fiscal year.

Animal welfare groups that work with the city backed the change. Animal Care Centers of NYC, which runs the city's shelters, was among the organizations named in the announcement, along with rescue groups from the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens and the Staten Island Hunger Task Force. Their argument is a practical one: when a household's grocery budget gets tight, the cost of feeding a dog or cat is one of the pressures that can push an animal toward a shelter, and pet food at the pantry takes that pressure off.

How to go

Pet food is handed out at the participating pantries during their regular distribution hours, which differ from site to site. Each pantry sets its own schedule and its own intake process, so the simplest step is to check with the pantry directly before you go, or ask at your next regular visit. The city's food assistance page lists Community Food Connection pantries across the five boroughs for anyone looking for a site closer to home.

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