ANDERSON — Ernie’s Heart Pet Food Pantry has moved – again.
For the sixth time in almost as many years, the pet food pantry that provides temporary animal food assistance has picked up and relocated in Anderson.
This time, however, the move promises to be more permanent.
“It’s going to be perfect,” Jan Smith, founder of the organization, said. “I’m so excited. Everyone came together and it happened so fast.”
Smith said she was contacted by Bill Decker of Anderson Preparatory Academy (APA) about using space at the old 25th Street School as part of the APA Leading Edge Center.
“The APA Leading Edge Center is in its very infant stages,” said Jill Barker, commandant for APA. “As far as Ernie’s goes, we heard about their financial difficulties, we had spaces out there and a building we were trying to find tenants for.
“They just happen to be our first one.”
The center, 3205 W. 25th St., was APA’s original home. When the charter school relocated to 101 W. 29th St., its officials had to make a decision on what to do with the property.
“We had land out there and a building with beautiful bones that just needs a little love,” Barker said.
The building is about 40,000 square feet and sits on a little more than 10 acres, Barker said. There are 20 classrooms, each one averaging between 850 and 900 square feet. Ernie’s is operating out of two classroom spaces.
By turning APA's former building into a nonprofit incubator, Barker said the academy can help create new or support existing opportunities within the community. She said the center will also offer space to smaller businesses, which are educationally linked, to allow students to play an active role in providing “service before self.”
Barker said Ernie’s plays an important service within the community by providing temporary pet food assistance to qualifying households, which allows owners to feed their pets instead of giving them up.
“We want to help them get back on their feet and be able to sustain that service,” Barker said. “A lot of these opportunities will have significant education components to them as well. It’s kind of a win, win, win for everyone.”
She said APA students also complete about 19,000 hours of community service and learn how to make the communities they live in better.
“It’s not a punishment,” Barker said. “We are trying to teach our kids that it is our social responsibility.”
She said students can volunteer at Ernie’s, in addition to learning how to set up a food pantry and how pantries operate within a community.
Barker said APA has been working to create a nonprofit incubator for about 18 months.
“Ernie’s just became the first opportunity to get us launched,” she said with a laugh.
Smith said Ernie’s is proud to be a part of “the APA family.”
“We are just tickled because there are other groups that I personally know that would be interested in coming out there,” Smith said. “To see it grow and become a community building? It’s going to be huge. To be on the ground floor, I’m just beyond words. Beyond words. “
Prior to APA’s offer to locate at the center with a lease that included free and partially free rent, Ernie’s had bounced from location to location. Smith said she finally settled into a place where she was paying about $600 in rent and utilities, but donations became meager during the holidays causing her to losing hope of keeping Ernie’s open.
“I was almost going to close and it just broke my heart,” Smith said. “I lost a lot of sleep over that one.”
Smith said they received about $2,300 in private donations around Christmas time, but they are looking for more donations.
“I had to pay utilities and a couple of months rent and it’s pretty much gone,” she said of the donations received in December. “We are very grateful for those donations, but we are looking for more – not that we need the rent money, 'cause we don’t."
Smith said she is looking for funds to help pay for bagging materials, dry cat food and to help pay rent in advance.
"Basically we don’t pay anything until Sept. and then it is $100 a month and I think that is to cover the utilities," Smith said. "Even if it is super cold or super hot our utilities would not exceed $200."
She said Ernie’s does not have a mailbox at its new location, but people can make donations through the pantry's GoFundMe.com site or through its PayPal account on Facebook.
“Our wants right now are dry cat food and if anyone can make monetary donations, that would be very helpful,” Smith said.
