Beginning in 1983, and consistently over these 42 years, Broken Arrow Neighbors (BAN) has been humbly serving our hungry neighbors in need in the Broken Arrow and Coweta communities with much-needed food and hygiene items. Throughout that time, BAN has noticed that many of our clients, especially our lovely seniors, were feeding their pets  before feeding themselves, so in January 2022, we created the Cali's Cart pet program to  help fill that urgent gap. 

Named in honor of executive director Megan Quickle's beloved type 1 diabetes service dog of 9 years, Cali, who passed away on Thanksgiving Day 2021, Cali's Cart is BAN’s way of ensuring that those 4-legged family members are getting all the resources they need. Meaning our clients can take care of themselves fully without having to dip into their pantry items. Megan always says, “Cali kept me alive for over 9 years, and this is her living legacy to help so many of our 4-legged family members in our community. I am so grateful that we get to honor her in such a meaningful and impactful way!” 

For their food pantry program, BAN has many wonderful Feeding America partners, but for the pet program, Cali’s Cart, we stock our shelves solely with donations from the  community and there is always a need for more. This year, along with those wonderful community relationships, BAN has initiated the “Cali’s Cart Turquoise Bucket” donation  box featured at some wonderful pet supply stores around Broken Arrow! Shoppers at our local Atwoods, Tractor Supply, and both BA Southern Agriculture locations can purchase those necessary pet items for Cali’s Cart - food, treats and litter - and drop them in the big  turquoise bucket at each store. Those donations will be picked up by BAN volunteers and distributed quickly to our clients each month. 

Since January of this year, Cali's Cart has provided food and resources to more than 350 families with pets, and we will provide to that many and more in the coming months. Since its inception – over 1,800 families! 

Because of this growing need, BAN is continually reaching out looking for opportunities to collaborate on activities such as pet food drives and donations of the most needed pet items. We have continual requests of wet and dry cat and dog food, treats of all kinds and always kitty litter.  

At BAN, we are a pet loving group of staff and volunteers, and we greatly appreciate any assistance or resources the community can provide or gather to help them help our furry neighbors in need.