Keeping Food Cold

Andrew Sullivan's Face of the Day is a poor little kid in Tulsa who is still without power due to snowstorms. He supposedly is seeking a hot meal at a local church because they lost all their food in the refrigerator due to the loss of electricity. Now, honestly, I don't begrudge somebody caught in a natural disaster a hot meal. Of course they should feed the kid and his mom.

But the story, as written on Sully's site, doesn't make a lot of sense. According to weather.com, the high temperature in Tulsa has been in the thirties for the last week. Under those circumstances, I can imagine many problems, but having food go bad due to lack of refrigeration wouldn't be one of them. If the kid's mom lost her heat due to the storm, her house or apartment would soon be below refrigerator temperature anyway. Just leave food out on the counter. If she has an alternative source of heat, and the home is too warm, she could leave perishables outside. If that's not practical, go outside and get some snow. Use the fridge as a cooler.

Now I can understand how, absent electricity, she might not have the facilities to cook anything. That makes sense. But the whole bit about losing food in the fridge, when it's in the thirties outside and there's snow on the ground, doesn't make a whole lot of sense.