An Interview With Jane Hoffman, President and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, The Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals

FS: Can you describe a recent successful fundraising effort?

JH: The Mayor's Alliance has teamed up with Susan Kaufman, a lawyer and the founder the Animal Relief Fund (ARF): HYPERLINK "http://www.arf-ny.org/"www.arf-ny.org, a nonprofit supplying pet food to human food pantries in NYC and Long Island. Pet food isn't covered by food stamps, and many struggling pet owners in the area faced surrendering their pets to a shelter when they weren't able to buy pet food. Through the great work of ARF, many cash-strapped New Yorkers have been able to feed their pets and keep their family (two- and four-legged) together during hard times. ARF's partnership with the Mayor's Alliance helped to spread the word about this much needed effort. The PETCO Foundation, a Mayor's Alliance supporter, recognized the invaluable work ARF has undertaken and began a pet food drive at PETCO stores in NYC and Long Island. As part of PETCO's "We Are Family Too" program, food donated and collected in PETCO stores in New York City will be distributed by ARF's partner, Food Bank For New York City, and food donated and collected in Nassau and Suffolk with be distributed by ARF's partner, Long Island Cares. By working with area food banks, ARF hopes to achieve maximum distribution of pet food to pet-owning families in need.