ATHOL – A trip to get fried chicken has led to a $10,000 windfall for North Quabbin Animal Control.

A donation from the KFC Foundation, a nonprofit run by the restaurant franchise, will be used for the purchase of a barn that will be built near the animal shelter on Thrower Road in Athol.

“I was up in Rindge getting my grains and stuff from Tractor Supply,” said Animal Control Officer Jennifer Arsenault. “There’s a KFC right next door and I took me and my husband out to eat. We pulled up to the window to get our food and there was a sticker on the window that said ‘KFC Foundation,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’ll have to look into that.’ And I did, and they had a grant that could get us a barn, so I applied.”

Arsenault credited Assistant Animal Control Officer Janelle Caron with writing the grant application. From the time the application was submitted to the time that North Quabbin Animal Control got the good news was about 90 days, according to Arsenault.

“The application had to be for a completed project,” she said. “We were going to be asking the town to maybe build us a barn because four years ago, we got stuck with three pigs for three months and we had to board them somewhere else. Liability-wise, that’s not a good idea. We should have everything on our property. So, when we heard about the KFC Foundation, we said ‘That could be our barn.’”

The barn is being ordered from Kloter Farms in Ellington, Connecticut at a total cost of $14,000. Town Manager Shaun Suhoski said he would be able to find money in the municipal budget to cover the rest of the cost for the structure.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.