For the unhoused, a pet might be the only reason for them to get up in the morning but to feed and take care of one can be an expense they can’t cover. A nonprofit organization, Street Dawg Crew of Utah is trying to see that people have what they need to keep their pet with them – regardless of their living situation. The organization was recently recognized by Mountain America Credit Union as a Community Champion.

“We’re a very small local nonprofit organization,” said Trichelle Hilton-King, director of Street Dawg Crew of Utah. “We service pets of the unsheltered and low income by running a mobile pet food pantry. All of our supplies and storage are kept at my personal home, which is in Davis County, but our outreaches are actually done in Salt Lake City.”

Street Dawg Crew does outreach every other Sunday year round at Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake City, she said. “We do it year round regardless of the weather. Depending on how many of the food banks need food we probably serve between 250 and 400 families a month.”

The organization has been doing it for the last 10 years, Hilton-King said. “We also provide pet food to a couple of smaller pantries in the area. We work with what they call the Kaysville food pantry that’s based out of one of the mobile home parks just off of Main Street in Kaysville. We’ve worked with them for about a year to help provide some pet food for about 400 families that they run the pantry for.”

It first got started when a co-founder who worked downtown noticed an unsheltered person on the side of the road asking for assistance but he also had a pet with him, Hilton-King said. “It just really stuck with her and she wondered how he was feeding his pet.”

So she started just bagging little amounts of dog food and driving around on her lunch break looking for people that might need it, she said. “Then it morphed into becoming an actual 501(c)(3) and we’ve done outreach for as long as the organization's been around.”

Street Dawg is all volunteer only, she said. “I work a full-time job too, so I just run this as a volunteer only.”

Hilton-King has been in animal welfare for about 20 years. “I’ve done everything from fostering to transport. My family and I are senior hospice dog fosters. So we do end of life care at our home. If an older dog is dumped at the shelter and they don’t get adopted, there’s no way out. So for the really bad medical cases we take them in and they come and live with us until they pass. I’m on my 28th foster right now.”

It’s just a complete passion and love for animals and their unconditional love, she said. “There’s a huge need in the community for pet resources. We were especially hit hard during COVID and then it just kind of never recovered from there. With the current environment and the way the economy is and the cost of goods, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of people coming through our lines for assistance.”

Pet food is really expensive right now, said Hilton-King. “It’s not uncommon for a single bag of pet food to run $55 to $70. We probably give out 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of dry food a month. It’s an incredible amount of food and our outreaches are only for one hour, every other Sunday and we give out at least 1,500 to 1,800 pounds of food in 60 minutes.”

They provide more than just pet food, said Hilton-King. “We do everything from pet food to treats, litter and collars, leashes and harnesses when we’re down in Salt Lake City.”

 Everything they do is at no charge, she said. “We give out supplies to anyone that shows up. There’s no income requirements and no ID required. Anyone that shows up will get assistance.”

Hilton-King said a lot of the folks have been coming for most of the 10 years she’s been doing it. “It’s a really hard cycle to get out of homelessness and all the things that lead to that. Animals provide that unconditional love and a reason to get up and going in the morning. A lot of our clients deal with addiction problems and mental illness and they’ve burned a lot of bridges with their support system and their animals are their everything and their reason for making it through another day. So it’s really important that we try to keep pets with their people.”

For more information on how to donate or volunteer visit streetdawgcrew.org.