Local 1 Member Establishes Community Refrigerator to Fight Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is defined as having limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate or safe foods, primarily due to poverty or household economics. Almost 48 million people in the United States face food insecurity, about 1.5 million people in New York City alone. And yet about 60 million tons of food is thrown away in the U.S. every year.

The problem is obvious, the solution is there, and Brother Adam Sanchez of Local 1, New York, New York is doing something about it. Brother Sanchez created Gratis Grove, a community aid organization, to offer free food to those who need it via a community refrigerator located in Queens, NY.

Brother Sanchez was organized into Local 1 in 2021 after working for a couple of non-union elevator companies and as an electrician. Although he was offered membership in the IBEW, he decided to join the IUEC because he “quickly realized that the IUEC was far superior in education, wages and dedication to its members.” He currently works in service/modernization for Excelsior Elevator Co.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Brother Sanchez’s work classified him as essential personnel which meant he was putting himself out in the public every day. He decided he could turn the situation he was in into an opportunity to help his community even more. He and his wife began assisting community organizations in delivering boxes of food to families who couldn’t leave their homes. It was during this time that Brother Sanchez noticed community refrigerators filled with free food popping up all over the boroughs of New York City. However, as soon as the government lifted the pandemic’s quarantine the community refrigerators began to disappear. What didn’t disappear, however, was the community’s need for food assistance.

While Brother Sanchez was always keenly aware of the need for continued assistance, the fire to create a program came from a professor of his when he decided to return to college in 2023. His professor asked the class how they were planning to use their college degrees for the benefit of society and Brother Sanchez immediately thought of starting a community refrigerator initiative. He and some fellow students began raising funds to buy a refrigerator and networking in the community to find a location to host the refrigerator for free including use of power. On the first day of canvassing the neighborhood, a masque offered to house and supply power to Gratis Grove’s refrigerator.

Local 1 officers are pictured with Adam Sanchez at Gratis Grove’s refrigerator. From left is Day Secretary Matt McElduff, retired Local 1 Vice President/Business Agent Thomas Whooley, Brother Adam Sanchez, Vice President/Business Agent Phil Ducatelli, and Organizer Brian Houser.

The refrigerator is located in Woodside Gardens in Queens and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for anyone who needs it.

Although Gratis Grove oversees the community pantry, it is absolutely a community effort in that anyone who is able stocks and maintains the refrigerator, including a team of volunteers comprised of teachers, parents, retail workers, artists, students, activists, neighbors, and of course, tradespeople. Food donations come from individuals; restaurants and bakeries that donate large amounts of fresh foods such as breads, sandwiches, vegetables and even fully prepared meals; local farmers’ markets and even other community organizations.

After recognizing how important the services of Gratis Grove have become to the community, Brother Sanchez has extended the organization’s reach into other areas of need. Gratis Grove has raised money to provide a local school with toys for its underprivileged students, helped get electricity turned back on for someone who had been living for months without power, helped a single parent with moving and rent assistance, provided free ice cream for kids for the entire summer in 2025, and is working on a campaign to get special hearing aids for a neighbor in need. Brother Sanchez says that the words of American Labor Unionist and Civil Rights Activist Asa Philip Randolph inspire him to keep Gratis Grove going: “The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor. Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom and justice.”

The greatest challenge Gratis Grove faces in its mission is the logistics of collecting the food that is donated as the food comes from different places at random times. If the food isn’t collected quickly, it becomes garbage overnight, notes Brother Sanchez. Getting volunteer drivers to pick up and deliver the food is the organization’s greatest challenge. He adds that the summer months are the busiest time of year because a lot of fresh and organic vegetables get donated from farmers’ markets in the summer months, and there are often fewer volunteers to call upon in the summer.

Brother Sanchez encourages all Local 1 members interested in volunteering to get in touch with him at gratisgrove@gmail.com, especially those willing to be a driver. Of course, monetary donations are also helpful, too. Brother Sanchez wants to be clear, however, that Gratis Grove is not a charity and does not make any money. It is a grassroots, volunteer-run, mutual aid collective and there are no barriers to receiving aid. “Food insecurity is an avoidable form of violence thrust upon the people and we are here to defend and fight for the people,” he says. “We are a country of abundance and try our best to share this with everyone who wishes to benefit from it.”

Brother Sanchez is grateful for the support and work his wife has dedicated to Gratis Grove and to the community, all of the organization’s volunteers, and the membership of Local 1 for believing in Gratis Grove and its cause.

The IUEC thanks Brother Sanchez and Gratis Grove, for truly living by the ideals of organized labor and lending a hand to those in need.