SAN ANTONIO — Within 24 hours, the Animal Care Services Pet Pantry went from having nine bags of food to having enough pet food to last through the year.

• Following shortage, Animal Care Services Pet Pantry received ample donations
• Program serves in-need families with pets
• Donation shortage threatened the program

The program is a donation-based organization that serves the community. They serve over 135 families that, on average, have two to three pets per family. The food they hand out is all from donations going to families who temporally can't afford it.

"They were extremely low and we figured we would start the holiday season off with some dog food and giving the puppies some food," Avery Davidson, a resident and supporter, said.

Davidson and her daughter Quin brought in two 50 pound bags of dog food.

"We have three dogs and three cats, and I've gotten cats here before so we just want to make sure to support local animal shelters," Davidson said.

"If we run out of food, we have to cease the program," Camille Shelton of the ACS Pet Pantry said. "We could give out those nine bags of food within the first two hours of Pet Pantry being open and then we were looking at unfortunately having to turn people away," Shelton said.

With the dozens of donations they recently received, they are very excited that they don't have to turn away families in need.

"Typically we'll see one to two new applications a month. This last week we've seen five new applicants in just a week," Shelton said.

The goal of the Pet Pantry is to keep the family pets fed during the trying times.

"People would start bringing their animals back if they can't feed them and we figured might as well keep them in homes where they are happy and loved," Avery said.