PEORIA, Ill. – Culinary students at Woodruff Career and Technical Center in Peoria are using their skills to help feed their four-legged friends.
The students made dog and cat treats to donate to the Peoria County Animal Protection Services.
Jetty Miedema is a culinary arts teacher at Woodruff. She says the recipe for the treats made are not too far off from a cookie recipe for humans, just without the sugar.
“These treats are actually human grade, so we could eat them as well,” Miedema says. “And we tasted them. And they’re pretty good, but they’re just not like you expect to bite into a cookie and taste something sweet. They’re more savory flavors.”
Miedema says the students made peanut butter cookies and cheddar biscuits for the dogs, and tuna puffs for cats at the shelter.
The treats are part of a student-led community service project for SkillsUSA. The project also included a bake sale that raised more than $1200 and becoming certified volunteers at PCAPS to care for cats and walk dogs.
Senior Nyla Cooper-McIntee says she enjoyed helping out the shelter animals.
“Very happy, like very happy. It’s really good to work with dogs,” Cooper-McIntee said.
PCAPS Director Becky Spencer says the support from the students was very appreciated.
“It’s great to have the support from the community, that people are thinking about homeless pets and that people are thinking about ways to help and make their lives a little bit better while they’re here at the shelter,” Spencer said.
Spencer adds people can help in other ways that does not have to involve adopting shelter pets. She says that can range from sharing social media posts to help find homes for the animals, to donating items such as old blankets and towels.
