05/12/2024
Howdy. There's many new views on the Chow Line page and a handful of opinions on how The Chow Line was managed. Let me be quite clear...I am happy to send data forms, paypal forms, and any other pertinent information I still have on The Chow Line, for those curious enough to ask.
1. We were never a 501c3 and never claimed to be. We always advertised as a non-profit, pet food pantry. Tangible pet care essentials were 95% of our donations. Monetary support was available via PayPal and cashapp; although the total for the 16 months in operation was less than $3500
2. I kept up transparency about where monetary funds were going each week. Mostly it was to fill up my truck. Sometimes 3 times per week. Sometimes buying lunch for myself and the volunteers that spent 3-5 hours helping me that day. Occasionally buying flea control or cat food for clients because we always ran out of those first.
2. Here are a few numbers to think over. We were servicing all of Baldwin County as well as the city of Mobile for 14 months. 320 families signed up for monthly assistance. And a good 80-100 needing emergency assistance each month. One day per week was spebynt picking up food from our donations stations: 6 across Baldwin County. On this day we would also restock the food pantry boxes in our community. One day was spent in Mobile for clients to pickup food. One day was spent in Baldwin County for clients to pickup food.
3. Monthly sponsorships for the cost of our storage unit were sent directly to the unit manager. Every post that was made asking for monetary support made that clear. Payments could be made by phone, directly to the storage unit manager.
4. Any donation day that was canceled was always rescheduled. I'm happy to say that in the 16 months of operation, roughly 45 donation drop offs, only 7 days were canceled and then rescheduled. Either for a later time that day or that week.
5. In addition to the overwhelming number of applicants; I was also having a difficult time handling the stress of the applicants who were unhappy with my rules and services. I will not elaborate because I've posted information about this in the past. I don't believe I was ever curt or snippy with a volunteer. For the sake of dispelling rumors, I've attached a screenshot of the conversation I had with a potential volunteer who is claiming I had an attitude with her so she decided not to help me. This is simply not true. This person canceled on me due to an apparent family emergency.
I'm attaching additional info via Photos to help with some of the apparent confusion. I will not be allowing comments due to the aggressive behavior of a small few who are disgruntled and misinformed. To anyone who views the Chow Line as me wanting to make a dollar...I am just fine reporting back that The Chow Line is now non-operational because I was spending hundreds of dollars each month of my personal money to fund the services. It wasn't sustainable.
I'll round off this post by reiterating just how far and wide our pet food assistance stretched in 16 months. Very very close to 8000 dogs and cats had food in their bellies when their pet parents were struggling. About 22k miles were driven between pickup, delivery and disbursement. Im unable to give a number for the hours upon hours of admin work: vetting potential clients, organizing pickup/delivery, emails, phone calls, paperwork. If we are able to continue services in 2025 I can only hope we have more than 1 person taking on that responsibility.
This post isn't a way to stroke any ego or complain about the work that was done. My intentions are to be crystal clear about what I didn't share on a day to day basis.
Maybe the Chow Line was mismanaged due to me not having any experience with nonprofit management or because I was ill-equipped to handle the number of people in need. I encourage you to take that jump, start your own pet food pantry and get into the daily routine of serving others instead of just yourself. The need is there. There hasn't been a pet food pantry before the Chow Line and there hasn't been one after. This means that hundreds of pet parents are still in need of pet food assistance.
Lets remember that when people are sad or scared or lonely, they may find themselves doing or saying things that don't make much sense. I've frequently said that the general population needs more help than you would assume. Whether that be pet food assistance, mental health services, or just a friendly "hello" to get through.
Thanks for reading along and happy Thursday!
