Church donates rice cookers for refugees

Last Christmas, Trinity Lutheran Church in Battle Creek provided gift cards for refugees being resettled by Lutheran Social Services. They had $250 left, said Pastor Colleen Nelson, and asked what else the refugees needed. The answer came quickly: rice cookers.

“I never have enough rice cookers,” said Kathryn Geller, senior refugee specialist.“Rice is an important food staple for refugees from Burma, and so a rice cooker is one of the first things they request. Most homes have a rice cooker simmering all day long.”

Betty Crowe, a Trinity member, went from store to store looking for the best bargains. On April 1, Crowe, Pastor Nelson and other Trinity members gave Geller 13 rice cookers in various sizes. The largest one went to Lai Lian, 38, a Burmese refugee who arrived in Battle Creek March 26 with his wife, three sons, and brother. (In the photo, Lian receives a rice cooker from Crowe, as Pastor Nelson looks on.)

“We are very grateful to Pastor Nelson, Betty Crowe and the entire congregation of Trinity Lutheran Church,” Geller said. “We would welcome more gifts of rice cookers from groups or individuals in the community. We also need household items, pots and pans, dishes, beds and bedding, other furniture, lamps, towels, cleaning supplies – whatever is needed to set up an apartment. If your yard or moving sale has leftover items, call us and we’ll pick it up.”