Hampton woman who started grass-roots initiative to help feed rescue dogs is amazed by ‘tremendous’ regional response

A grass-roots campaign started by a Peterborough dog-lover to establish a national network of food bank collection bins for rescue dogs has received a significant boost this week.

Clare Thompson, from Hampton, said it was “really good news” that Huntingdonshire District Council has agreed to provide her scheme with a number of collection bins.

The impassioned 63-year-old explained how this step forward to achieving her ultimate goal came about:

Hampton woman Claire Thompson is leading a campaign to establish a network of foodbank bins for rescue dogs across the UK.

placeholder image — Hampton woman Claire Thompson is leading a campaign to establish a network of foodbank bins for rescue dogs across the UK.

“We had a tremendous response to our story appearing in the Peterborough Telegraph last week,” she said.

“A lady called Jane Mallon joined our group and she rang Huntingdonshire District Council and asked if they had any bins that we could possibly use to put into shops.”

“They got back to her the very next day saying ‘How many do you need?’”

Claire has been moved by just how many people have got in touch to find out more about her ambitious scheme over the past week.

“The people who have been messaging me saying ‘I shared it; I shared it’ have made me so happy,” she said.

Clare first started the scheme by getting Tesco to agree to having a collection bin at their Serpentine Green store where generous customers could donate pet food that could then be used to feed rescue dogs.

Huntingdonshire District Council’s decision to donate some bins to the scheme means Claire – and her growing army of helpers – can now be more persuasive when asking supermarkets to get involved.

“Us having the bins means that the stores don’t have to pay a penny - all they have to do is say ‘yes; we will have a bin in the store’.”

Buoyed by recent developments, animal-lover Claire feels confident that her labour-of-love will soon become more than just a regional, grass-roots scheme.

“If enough supermarkets are asked enough times, surely they will take up the initiative,” she said.

“All we need now is to get more people involved to collect the bins and spread them about for us.”Anyone who would like to receive updates about Claire’s efforts, or is interested in lending a hand, can find out more by visiting her Facebook page.