#Food fight: Community refrigerator trashed in Far Rockaway dispute

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The Far Rockaway community refrigerator meant for residents in need was found on a jetty.

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Someone trashed a Far Rockaway community refrigerator set up to provide food for residents who are hurting during the coronavirus pandemic — sparking accusations of racism and classism on the peninsula.

The fridge was set up by Queens Mutual Aid, a group affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, on Beach 91st Street last week, according to social media posts by a Rockaway activist group.

Some residents complained about the fridge, and the group agreed to move it, but before they could several people took the appliance and put it on a jetty in the ocean, activist group Rockaway Revolution tweeted.

Several residents of the peninsula cheered on the trashing of the fridge in local online forums, calling it “legendary,” according to Rockaway Revolution.

“The only thing ‘legendary’ about this is how a community pulling together to help one another woke up a small group of spiteful & angry people,” the activist group tweeted.

“Would this have been ‘legendary’ in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, when people came here to help dig out our homes and give us hot meals?” they added.

No one has fessed up to swiping the fridge, but activists suspect it was the residents who complained on social media that the fridge being left outside might attract vermin, the Queens Daily Eagle reported.

Rockaway Revolution organizer Marva Kerwin told the local newspaper that the fridge tiff shows the divide on the peninsula.

“I think it’s definitely classism, and when you think about poor people in the Rockaways, a majority are Black and brown folks,” Kerwin told the newspaper.

“There is segregation here,” she added.