Building on last year’s success, Greater Good Charities, in partnership with Mars Petcare, announces year two of its Extend a Paw campaign, committing to donate up to 2.7 million pet meals–an increase from last year’s total donation–to help end hunger in animal shelters and rescues across the country. For every purchase of select Mars Petcare products at Walmart or Walmart.com now through September 30, one meal will be donated to feed a hungry pet. Participating brands include IAMS, PEDIGREE, NUTRO, TEMPTATIONS and GREENIES, which is a new addition to this year’s campaign.
“Pet food remains one of the largest operating expenses for animal welfare organizations, and the Extend a Paw campaign provides much needed relief to these organizations across the country,” said Liz Baker, CEO of Greater Good Charities. “We’re thrilled to bring the program back for a second year to give these organizations, who are dealing with staffing issues and pet overpopulation that hasn’t been seen in years, more flexibility to focus on additional ways to save more pets’ lives.”
For each participating product purchased at Walmart during the Extend A Paw campaign, Mars Petcare will donate one meal to Greater Good Charities to be distributed to its network of animal welfare organizations. Mars Petcare will donate up to 2.7 million pet meals through the campaign, with a guarantee of at least 1 million meals donated to help pets in need.
“After the success of last year’s campaign with the support of pet parents across the U.S., we’re thrilled to kick off this year’s Extend a Paw program as part of our long-standing partnership with Greater Good Charities,” said Josh Evertsen, senior vice president of customer development at Mars Petcare. “Everything we do at Mars Petcare is in service of our purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS, and with more meals donated and more participating Mars Petcare brands, this year’s program will have an even bigger impact for pets in need all across the country.”
Greater Good Charities is a global nonprofit organization that works to help people, pets and the planet and has provided more than $400 million in cash grants, in-kind supplies and programmatic support worldwide. Additionally, Greater Good Charities is providing more than 500 tons of pet food for pets of refugees displaced in Ukraine and fleeing to neighboring countries, and to struggling animal shelters in Ukraine, with a commitment to procure an additional 1,000 tons.
Since 2011, Greater Good Charities has provided over 506 million meals to help pets in need. Last year’s Extend a Paw campaign in partnership raised 2.5 million meals for shelter and rescue pets nationwide.
Everything Mars Petcare does is in service of a world where pets are healthy, happy and welcome. As part of its BETTER CITIES FOR PETS program, Mars Petcare continues to provide grants, resources and support to animal welfare organizations around the country, as well as municipalities and pet parents, helping to ensure people and pets can live happy lives together. In addition, PEDIGREE Foundation, developed in 2008, has given nearly $10M in grants to support the great work of shelters and rescues across the country to help end pet homelessness.
“We’re pleased to participate in the Extend a Paw campaign with Mars Petcare for the second year with an even larger commitment to donate 2.7 million pet meals,” said Melody Richard, vice president of Pets, Walmart U.S. “Great news on this program, our Walmart customers can participate however they want to shop; Pickup and Delivery, Instore or on Walmart.com. We know that pets are members of the family and pet parents prioritize their companions beginning with the food they buy, and this simple act can benefit millions of other animals in need.”
For more information, visit Walmart.com/ExtendAPaw
