During a special session of the Portland, Oregon, City Council held November 8th, 2010, Larry Chusid, founder of The Pongo Fund, was both honored and humbled to receive the prestigious City of Portland’s 2010 Spirit of Portland Humanitarian Award on behalf of The Pongo Fund.
Following is the speech read by Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard during presentation of the Award.
Humanitarian – Larry Chusid + The Pongo Fund
Larry Chusid has centered his life’s work on the principle that making a difference is more important than making a dollar. Inspired by Pongo, his friend and companion for over eighteen years, Larry founded The Pongo Fund in 2007 with the goal of offering support to Portlanders struggling to provide for their family pets.
Larry began by delivering quality pet food to Portland’s most vulnerable citizens; the homeless. He quickly recognized the demand for pet food extended beyond the homeless and into the ranks of everyone who, hard hit by the economy, were having trouble making ends meet.
A chance encounter with a social worker planted the seeds for his next step. She told the story of two small children who saw their family surrender their beloved dog because they could not afford dog food; now these children feared they would be surrendered as well because money was running out.
Believing that no one should be faced with the decision of breaking up their family because they were struggling to pay for food, Larry responded to the gap in Portland’s charitable outreach services by establishing The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank in November 2009. For the first time, Portlanders in need of assistance had the support of a designated resource for quality dog and cat food.
One million meals later, The Pongo Fund remains an all-volunteer public charity, providing quality pet food, free of charge, to anyone in honest need. Larry remains at the helm of this effort and continues to strive to make a difference in his hometown, working tirelessly on the behalf of family pets and their human families. We think Pongo himself would be pleased.