Submitted by The Animal Protection Society – Friday Harbor

The Animal Protection Society – Friday Harbor is pleased to announce Nancy Hodges as Volunteer of the Month for March 2024. Nancy, or “Nan” as most of us call her, has been volunteering at the Pet Food Pantry since October 2023. Since then, she has been a crucial and welcome addition to our crew of caring individuals that help those pets in need.

The Pet Food Pantry is an APS-FH run community pet food bank that operates every other week out of our Treasure Hounds building in the heart of town. It was established to help keep pets in their homes by providing cat and dog food and other basic pet supplies for families in need of temporary assistance. APS-FH also partners with local human service organizations to get pet food and supplies to people who cannot make it to the pantry. Nan helps distribute pet food and supplies every other week and does so with compassion and kindness for others from a nonjudgmental perspective. In fact, one of her favorite reasons why she volunteers with the shelter in this capacity is that she gets to follow her belief that everyone should be able to feel the joy and love of having a pet no matter their income status, which directly ties into the mission of the Pet Food Pantry in supporting and valuing the human-animal bond that we share with our pets.

Nan’s co-volunteers describe her as a natural for this kind of work. She puts people at ease with her understandable and humble nature. Nan isn’t afraid of jumping in where needed and is quick to help sort, organize, and bag up food to prepare for the pantry, even coming in on her non-scheduled days when it’s needed. She inspects all the food that is distributed and prides herself on quality control – nothing goes out the door that Nan herself wouldn’t feel comfortable feeding her own pet.