June 29, 2017

Charlotte Observer

A local animal rescue feels like the rug has been ripped out beneath them after they say their food donations stopped abruptly. Carolina Waterfowl Rescue relies heavily on fresh produce donations from Harris Teeter to feed hundreds of birds they're nursing back to health.

Jennifer Gordon is the director of the Indian Trail based non-profit. “Every single animal has a story. They all have a horrible story of how they got here,” she said. Most of the birds they have came in abandoned or injured. Gordon says their staff and volunteers take in between 3,000 and 5,000 animals every year.

“Our goal is to make life easy for them once they get here,” Gordon said. The feathered ones rule the roost at Carolina Waterfowl. Animals are everywhere, and to keep them full it take hundreds of pounds of fresh produce per day. “It takes a ton of food to feed everybody,” Gordon said.

Since the organization's inception, they've relied on food donations from local grocery stores, most recently, Harris Teeter. But Tuesday, Gordon says they were told the donations would be stopping because of a new initiative.
“We’ve always relied on the generosity of the community stores around us that provided us food and it was devastating to find out that it was no longer going to be available,” she said.

The organization is now scrambling to find a way to feed hundreds of hungry beaks 

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