I agree with the health department on this one. They may have saved the church a big lawsuit down the line from bad food inserted into the unmanned refrigerator by a troll that sickens or kills someone else, or from the inevitable malfunction of an outdoor refrigerator. Sorry: people who need help that badly need to line up inside the church, and view all the pictures of Jesus and Ten Commandments posters while they are waiting.
Amen.
Or the person who finds weenies two months past expiration in their own fridge and thinks, “I don’t want to throw this out... I’ll stick it in that church fridge. The homeless won’t mind if it’s a bit old.”
The only way to help the poor is to develop a relationship with them and listen to them, one by one. And then help them get to a new level of life. Anything else is a temporary band-aid. Food pantries and diaper drives serve a purpose, but they don’t help deliver hurting people out of their circumstances.