In February, the Nutro Co. donated more than one million meals of its Natural Choice cat food to the Petco Foundation's petfood bank program via collection bins in Petco stores nationwide.

"It's important to the Nutro Co. to give back and support a healthy lifestyle for all pets, which starts with a well-balanced diet," said Kent Cunningham, vice president of marketing.

The Petco Foundation established a nationwide network of petfood banks by placing collection bins in Petco stores for customers to drop off food or cat litter donations. Each Petco store then partners with an existing human food bank or animal welfare group's petfood bank to give the petfood donations directly to economically-stressed pet owners in the community. Since its launch in February 2010, the Petco Foundation has collected 500,000 pounds of food and added 400 new charitable partners, according to Petco.