Some 70 years ago, Marylou McQuaid developed a deep love for animals — and it all started with a walk to Curley's Restaurant.
Born and raised in Auburn, McQuaid grew up in a poor Syrian-Italian family. But every night, McQuaid said, she and her mother would wrap up some of their spaghetti dinner and walk to Curley's on State Street. And there, the two would feed the stray cats gathered in the lot next door.
"My mother instilled in me a love and a passion for animals," McQuaid said. "We were very, very poor, but at night time, my mother would say, 'Come on, Marylou, you want to go for a walk?'"
McQuaid eventually grew up, married and began her own family, but she never forgot that leftover lesson: compassion.
An antique dealer, McQuaid and her late husband, Marvin, spent their lives buying people's belongings. However, she said, they often found more than they'd bargained for, and soon, the couple began giving families more than cash for their collectibles.
"The poor people were hungry and forced to sell their things, and we would notice that their animals were so very thin," she said. "So I would go to Wegmans and bring back cat food or dog food as a gift from me and Marvin. ... We were doing that on practically every call we had."
She knew the people could go to a local food pantry, which McQuaid and Marvin would often help them find. But there was no pantry for their starving pets — so in 1997, the McQuaids decided to start their own. They began with 10 bags of cat food and 20 bags of dog food, which the couple stored in a shed outside their home. In their first year, they helped 17 families feed their pets.
Then, in 1998, the government granted the McQuaids nonprofit status, and the Pet Food Pantry grew. Soon, McQuaid said another 30 people had responded to an ad in The Citizen, and the Associated Press sent the story around the world.
“I got a call from my cousin in Rome, Italy, and she said, 'I always knew you were going to do something great with your life,'" McQuaid said, laughing. "She said, 'That's a wonderful idea. Maybe I'll start one here in Rome.' And now we've got pet food pantries all over the world, and it all started right here in Auburn.”
Now, two decades later, McQuaid said the Pet Food Pantry is still going strong, distributing approximately 1,800 pounds of dog and cat food on the third Tuesday of every month. Serving all of Cayuga County and parts of Seneca and Onondaga counties, McQuaid sees 300 to 400 people come to her home every year, she said.
As a nonprofit, McQuaid said, the pantry requires that pet owners qualify in order to give them free food. They must bring identification and an income statement to show that their annual earnings equal $15,000 or less.
"I have seen thousands of people come through my doors in 21 years from all walks of life," McQuaid said. "I won't turn them away. If you've got animals and they're hungry, you've got every right to be here, as long as you qualify."
McQuaid said she and her volunteers usually get donations of wet and dry pet food from Walmart and Tractor Supply Co. In addition, the pantry also has new and secondhand beds, blankets, toys and leashes, as well as kitty litter and birdseed. The birdseed is often given to seniors who are not allowed to house a pet.
"I love what I do," McQuaid said, smiling. "I'm still a practicing antique dealer, but God gets me up every day to make sure that the animals are fed and cared for in the community."
McQuaid said she won't stop the Owasco Street pantry anytime soon. Now 75, she said, she made a promise to her husband two years ago, right before he passed away: "that I would never let the pet pantry die."
As for those who have criticized the poor for keeping pets, McQuaid said she's found that owners often put their pets first — like the 92-year-old Italian woman on the west end who served her Meals on Wheels lunches to her pet cats.
"If you take away their dog or their cat, they don't even want to live no more," she said. "It's the only contact — the only thing that loves them in the world. They're family. ... That's why I run the pet food pantry. I keep people and pets together."
