But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.
The big point of the passage, however, is that it was a Gentile widow, a Sidonian, to whom Elijah was sent, and not to any widow in Israel.  The reason for this choice lay in the unbelief prevalent in the Israel of that period, and in the contrasting faith of the widow of Zarephath.