That's actually a vintage freezer. It was almost identical to this fridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--qQoY8o-0c
It didn't have the automatic door, but it did have a really cool "Freeze-Index" in the door: color-coded cards on which you could list the contents of the various drawers and the dates you froze them.
There were two freezers more in the basement. Either these people were survivalists or they were cannibals.