As we get closer to Thanksgiving there is a lot concern about feeding the hungry. Today food pantries, meal programs, programs like Share and food stamps help a growing number of people get enough food to survive. Also there is a push, headlined by First Lady Obama, for children to eat healthy.

However, in my home visits to low income families with the St. Vincent De Paul Society I discovered one major obstacle to eating healthy food. As the rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer there are more and more low income families without a refrigerator and stove. Landlords, in an effort to keep their income from dropping too much, are more frequently not providing refrigerators and stoves in their rental units.

Low income persons can find sources of food but often do not have ways to refrigerate or cook the food. Therefore they often use their food stamps for what some call “gas station food”, ready to eat or “fast food”, both expensive and not healthy choices.

Catholic Churches, like ours, Blessed Trinity Church, with a St. Vincent De Paul Conference are among the few, if not the only ones, that can provide help with refrigerators or stoves. And all we can afford is a $100 voucher to a used appliance store for a stove or refrigerator. Used refrigerators and stoves can cost about $150 to $200, leaving the low income person to make up the difference.

So while I applaud all the concerns to collect food and money to feed those in need, I ask what about the refrigerator to preserve the food and the stove to cook the food? What non-profit is asking “where is the fridge?

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