LAKE FOREST – Pet Forest food will be available to seniors and the jobless today.

The free pet food giveaway, sponsored by the Lake Forest-based Rescuing Unwanted Furry Friends, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Pet Rescue Center, in the Alicia Pet Care Center, 25800 Jeronimo Road, Suite 100, in Mission Viejo. Participants can get dog, cat and bird food. Almost 1,000 people have benefitted from the free food program this year.

The service is led by Lake Forest residents Jim Gardner and Ann Breuer, who started the free food program more than a year ago through Friends of Lake Forest Animals. The Pet Rescue Center saves cats and dogs at risk for euthanasia at local shelters and puts them up for adoption. RUFF focuses on rescuing abandoned or unwanted pets and helps pay their adoption fees and medical needs.

Sponsors of the pet food giveaway this year have been the National Cat Protection Society, the Animal Kinship Ministry, VIP Food Delivery, Marina Hills Animal Hospital in Laguna Niguel, Pet Country in Lake Forest, Pets Plus in Mission Viejo and the Pet Rescue Center in Mission Viejo. In addition, (Pet Forest Gold)students from the Paws and Claws club from Trabuco High School in Lake Forest have helped package the pet food.

Since the program started in September 2008, the pet food giveaway has collected and distributed almost 25 tons of food and more than six tons of pet supplies such as blankets, litter and leashes.

The group also donates food to Lake Forest-based South County Outreach where Breuer said the demand for food continues to rise. Next week the group will celebrate two years of free pet food given to the food pantry.