Starting Oct. 19, New York City will hand out free dog and cat food at 22 city-funded food pantries. Residents can pick it up when they collect groceries, and the city has set aside $500,000 to buy the pet food.

Starting Oct. 19, New York City will hand out free dog and cat food at 22 city-funded food pantries. Residents who visit a pantry for groceries can pick up pet food on the same trip. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the City Council, the Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare (MOAW) and the Department of Social Services (DSS) jointly announced the program on Oct. 15.

The city has allocated $500,000 to purchase the pet food. It has also tripled the base budget of the Community Food Connection (CFC) program, which supports more than 700 pantries, and will spend $78 million on food distribution in fiscal year 2027. DSS Commissioner Erin Dalton and MOAW Director Ali Taylor, among others, took part in the announcement. The announcement does not list any separate eligibility requirements.

Food pantries are neighborhood distribution sites that hand out groceries without requiring proof of income or a complicated application process. New York City supports more than 700 pantries through the CFC program, but pet food had not been among the items distributed until now. The city expanded the list of items after some people began surrendering their dogs and cats to shelters because of the cost of pet food. The 22 participating pantries are spread across all five boroughs: four in the Bronx, four in Queens, six in Brooklyn, and others in Manhattan and Staten Island.

The 22 Locations Where Pet Food Is Available

Participating pantries by borough
Bronx (4)
Part of the Solution(2759 Webster Ave.), New York Common Pantry(1290 Hoe Ave.), Davidson Community Center(2038 Davidson Ave.), Kingsbridge Heights Community Center(3067 Kingsbridge Terrace)
Queens (4)
First United Methodist Church of Jamaica(162-10 Highland Ave.), River Fund(89-11 Lefferts Blvd.), Yeshua Worldwide Ministries Food Pantry(7911 Caldwell Ave.), Hour Children Community Outreach(36-49 11th St.)
Brooklyn (6)
Community Help in Park Slope(200 Fourth Ave.), Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty(5361 Preston Ct.), On the Go Relief(2832 Fulton St.), St. John's Bread and Life(795 Lexington Ave.), The Campaign Against Hunger(2004 Fulton St.), YMCA Community Market(2980 West 29th St.)
Manhattan (6)
Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Pantry(296 Ninth Ave.), New York Common Pantry(8 East 109th St.), St. Clemens Food Pantry(423 West 46th St.), The Father's Heart Ministries(543-545 East 11th St.), The Lower Eastside Girls Club(402 East 8th St.), Trinity's Services and Food for the Homeless(602 East 9th St.)
Staten Island (2)
Project Hospitality(205 Canal St.), Feeding with TLC(309 St. Paul's Ave.)

Days and hours of operation vary by pantry. It is best to check with the pantry before visiting. Information on the city's food assistance programs is available at nyc.gov/site/hra/help/food-assistance.page.