Barr Refrigeration is on a mission to keep it cool for community

Meghan Diemel

Contributor

June 29, 2026

OSHKOSH – From its roots as a family-founded business to its position as a global company, CEO Christopher Piotrowski said Barr Refrigeration’s commitment to philanthropy has remained central to its mission and vision throughout the last four decades.

Founded in 1978 by Tom Barr and headquartered in Oshkosh, Piotrowski said the business is now an international provider of coolers, freezers and commercial refrigeration.

That expansion, he said, has continuously fueled the company’s community-focused efforts, which recently include the growth of its “Coolers for a Cause” program, which provides cold-storage infrastructure to nonprofits, fraternal organizations, governmental agencies and educational institutions nationwide.

Recognizing the wide-ranging cold-storage needs of organizations that serve the public good – from food pantries and civic lodges to public schools and municipal agencies – Piotrowski said it is leveraging its expertise and global commercial refrigeration inventory to help community institutions operate more effectively, in turn helping them serve more people.

“Community organizations of every kind rely on dependable cold storage to carry out their missions,” he said. “By expanding Coolers for a Cause, we are putting our industrial refrigeration expertise to work for the greater good, making it easier and more affordable for these institutions to get the equipment they need to serve their communities.”

From refurbished roots to global reach

In the early years of the business, Piotrowski said the Barr family focused on the used segments of the commercial refrigeration market.

Leaders, he said, centered the business around procuring and helping organizations who wanted to remove a commercial refrigeration system.

Piotrowski said the company then refurbished and sold that system as a cost-effective unit for other individuals in the market.

“As the family business continued to grow, they developed an expertise in terms of global sourcing,” he said.

Today, Piotrowski said the company sources parts and components from across the globe, allowing it to expand its commercial refrigeration offerings and introduce new opportunities in the market.

“[That means] whether you’re talking about refrigerators or freezers, whether those happen to be walk-in units or drive-in units that are customized to what the end customer needs for their particular business, [and] whether that happens to be a brewery, a grocery store, a florist, a food pantry, etc.,” he said.

Piotrowski said Barr also continues to serve the used and refurbished equipment market, offering an additional option for customers. 

He said the company also has a surplus segment of the business, where it purchases surplus units from manufacturers across the world and works with its customer base to offer a more cost-effective opportunity for individuals who are creating or customizing a particular unit. 

Piotrowski said the Barr team does a strong job of not only understanding a customer’s business, industry or nonprofit mission, but also takes the time to walk through facilities and identify how refrigeration fits into daily operations and day-to-day use.

Barr employees, he said, then use those key insights to make recommendations of a particular unit or solution they believe will work well for them.

“For example, if you take a step back and think through food pantries, food pantries’ mission and vision is all about solving food insecurity,” he said. “How do they accomplish that mission and vision? Cold storage is really crucial for them, so they are able to provide fresh, nutritious food to their constituents.”

Another great example, Piotrowski said, is civic organizations.

“When you think about a civic organization, their vision and mission is about bringing the community together and developing those community bonds over a particular area of specialization they have,” he said, “and the role cold storage plays is bringing the community together over food.”

From idea to impact 

After he was hired at Barr, Piotrowski said company leadership encouraged him to develop a deeper understanding of both customers and the broader community.

He said the Coolers for a Cause pilot program emerged organically from that onboarding process, as he gained a clearer perspective on customers’ needs and challenges.

When he met with the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry, Piotrowski said he learned about the refrigeration challenges the organization was facing, as well as its broader operational needs.

That conversation, he said, ultimately sparked the idea for Coolers for a Cause and revealed two key insights.

First, Piotrowski said the pantry was seeking expert guidance on cold-storage solutions.

And second, he said he realized this need extended far beyond a single organization, affecting nonprofits and institutions across a wide range of industries.

Piotrowski said Barr Refrigeration’s Coolers for a Cause pilot program initially focused on helping food pantries in Wisconsin and across the country address their cold-storage needs.

However, following strong feedback from participants, he said the company felt prepared to expand the initiative nationally in 2026.

Piotrowski said the program now serves a broader range of organizations, including nonprofits, fraternal and civic groups, schools, municipal agencies – such as police, fire and EMS – churches and religious organizations, as well as public safety, disaster relief and nonprofit healthcare entities.

He said the program offers participants significant cost reductions on new coolers, freezers and commercial refrigeration units, as well as cost-effective, gently used, refurbished units.

Further, Piotrowski said the Barr team provides complimentary consultation services to help organizations design and implement customized cold-storage solutions that meet their specific needs and goals.

Piotrowski said Barr also offers what he calls “marketing in a box” – a customizable suite of resources to help organizations with fundraising to purchase and maintain their cold-storage infrastructure, like templates for social media, direct mail and more.

He said the organization places its logo, mission and vision statements into the templates, and they can use the material to get their donors excited about fundraising for its refrigeration needs.

“It’s what I call… ‘Simple as 123,’” he said. “[One], we want to help spread the word for all these [organizations]. Two, [we approach] the process in a consultative fashion. And then three, if they need help in that fundraising arena, we do have those templates we can help them with… to help them energize their donor base and get really excited about the project at hand.”

A lasting impact

Piotrowski said Coolers for a Cause demonstrates how improved commercial cold-storage capacity can help organizations expand their impact and better serve their communities.

That commitment, he said, extends beyond providing refrigeration equipment and infrastructure.

In late April, Piotrowski said Barr Refrigeration employees volunteered at the Appleton facility of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, helping repack and sort food for senior citizens.

These efforts, he said, reflect the company’s dedication to supporting the organizations and communities at the heart of the Coolers for a Cause mission. 

“It’s really great being able to share our expertise and our consultative nature to really help teach and inform these companies and these nonprofits, so we can help them carry on with their day,” he said. “And our goal at the end of the day is to make sure refrigeration is in the back of their mind, and they just have a great system that does what they need it to do, day in and day out, without them thinking about it.”

Piotrowski said the success of the now-national program will be measured in several ways.

He said Barr Refrigeration’s top priority is ensuring it helps organizations effectively meet their missions.

Beyond that, Piotrowski said the company aims to serve more than 400 entities over the next several years and gather feedback on how the solutions are working for participants, using those insights to share impact stories and strengthen connections across the communities involved in Coolers for a Cause.

From launching the pilot program to seeing it come full circle through volunteer work at the Oshkosh pantry, Piotrowski said the experience has been a meaningful one for him and the Barr team.

“I probably can’t put it into words how amazing it’s been,” he said.