The catch: It needs to get rid of them before the end of October. And it would prefer they find homes among the poor and needy. 

More than 300 refrigerators already have helped poor families in South Florida, thanks to a generous donation by a property owner who prefers to remain anonymous.

A Catholic who owns a Brickell Avenue building, he wanted to change out all the kitchen appliances in his apartment complex. The appliances � 371 sets of refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers and microwaves � are all off-white and well maintained. 

He wanted to donate them to the poor, so he called the archdiocese. The archdiocese, in turn, called on its �army of volunteers�: the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

�We�ve always been known as a can-do organization,� said Frank Voehl, president of the archdiocesan council. �They used to call us the �last-chance saloon.� When there was nowhere else to turn, they would call us.�

The main problem was logistics: how to pick up and deliver the appliances; where to store them; how to make sure they got to the poor; and how to do all that with no money.

�Can you handle it?� asked David Prada, senior director of the archdiocesan Building and Property Office, who became the point man on the project at the request of Sister Elizabeth Worley, archdiocesan chancellor for administration.

�There�s no money,� Prada told Voehl. �It has to be self-sufficient.�

Voehl and his Vincentians � 1,000 active members in 70 parish-based conferences throughout the archdiocese � got to work. 

Dennis Joseph, president of the Northeast Miami Dade Council, and Gus Treichel, a Vincentian from Immaculate Conception Parish in Hialeah, took on the role of project managers. Voehl put together a detailed business plan that called for renting a truck for six months, relying on donations and partnerships with other charities to pay for it, and recruiting Vincentians to do the labor.

Finding the poor and needy was no problem: that�s the Vincentian charism, the work they do every day out of love and in service to Christ, whom they see in the poor. For Vincentians, charity is not anonymous. They visit people�s homes to see all that they need � not just food or money for utilities but jobs and furniture and spiritual support. 

�Home visits: That�s the real difference between St. Vincent de Paul and other outreach,� Voehl said.

So the Vincentians spread the word among their conferences and to archdiocesan pastors, and in less than six months they had given away all the refrigerators.

�Many of them went to poor people that had been renting refrigerators for $25 a week. Talk about predatory lending,� Voehl said.

A number of archdiocesan parishes asked for refrigerators and stoves for their school cafeterias or parish halls. Habitat for Humanity received 300 appliances in exchange for paying half the truck costs for two months, a total of $3,000. (Between rent and gas, the truck cost $3,000 a month to operate.)

Father Paul Vuturo, pastor of St. Louis Parish in Pinecrest, donated $4,000 to the project. Through Father Luis Rivero, who was campus minister at the time, St. Thomas University became a satellite distribution point, and even used its maintenance truck for deliveries.

�We would deliver them if we could for free,� Voehl explained, or charge a nominal amount of $35 to those who could afford it. 

St. Vincent de Paul�s thrift stores in north and central Broward County also received appliances to sell at low cost to their clients.

The project started in February and broke even by the end of August. In fact, the Vincentians more than recouped their costs. Thanks to the exposure, they gained a new conference at St. Thomas University, a reactivated conference at Immaculate Conception and 25 new members. 

But the archdiocesan warehouse where they were storing the appliances is being sold, and everything needs to be out by October 31. They have about 250 dishwashers left, along with 200 microwaves and 175 stoves.

�We�ve been trying to move some of the stuff in bulk,� Voehl said, by posting on e-Bay and working with re-sellers. They have partnered with some parishes to hold garage sales. 

They are even looking for a way to ship the appliances to the Caribbean but the cost so far is prohibitive: $100 per unit. They would also need to make sure someone �reliable� was receiving the goods on the other end, such as the local bishop or his St. Vincent de Paul conference.

�We just want to make sure that we get as many out there as we can,� Voehl said. 

He noted that the project already has helped over 200 families break the cycle of poverty, since having reliable kitchen appliances frees up money for food, child care, medicine and other necessities.

Now, anyone who wants an appliance � or two � can have it, as long as they pick it up at the warehouse (the rental truck has been returned) or are willing to pay $35 for local delivery.

�Poor and needy,� Voehl said, referring to the original goal of the project. �You don�t have to be poor to be needy. At this point, I�d rather give them to somebody than scrap them. They�re high-end appliances and in good working order.�