CORONAVIRUS
DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com Sunday, March 29, 2020 5
Food Market across the street from
the Pelham Houses NYCHA com-
plex in the Bronx said he’s also had
more people asking for credit.
On one particularly hard day since
the governor and mayor asked peo-
ple to stay at home, 15 people asked if
they could take items and pay later,
Rodriguez said. One customer
begged for free bread or ham.
“We can try to help people, but it’s
hard to help everyone because, you
know, we have to pay bills too,” said
Rodriguez, 33.
Food theft is way up at his store,
he added.
“It’s hard for me right now to stop
some people with food. Remember,
we are human. We got heart. We feel
too, you know. We eat. We got kids.
It’s difficult for all of us,” he said.
“What can you do?” Rodriguez
asked. “Close your eyes and say yes.”
An employee at Nick’s Market in
Williamsbridge, the Bronx, said
many customers are short of cash.
“One lady yesterday said ‘I don’t
have enough.’ She used her food
stamps, but then she didn’t havemoney to buy eggs. My boss told me,
‘You know what? Give it to her for
free. It’s OK,’ ” said clerk Bona
Morku.
“Many times we tell them ‘Don’t
worry,’ ” Morku said. “We do it with
people we know.”
People have been buying morestaples like flour, milk, eggs, water
and pasta, she said.
Maeen Almontaser, 35, said his
little grocery on Williamsbridge
Road in the Bronx gets lots of credit
requests.
“When it’s people I know, of
course, I help them,” he said.
“I had a guy — just one — who told
me, ‘I’m not working and I don’t
know how long before I’m getting
paid again,’ ” he recalled.
“I gave him a gallon of milk and a
box of cereal,” he said.
“I can’t turn them back even if I
don’t know if they’re even going to
pay me back.”
“We’re in this together,” Al-
montaser said.
“If somebody is asking me for
credit, if it’s food, I give it.”Ahmed Alwan (main photo) in
the Bronx and Nasser Alawi (left)
in Brooklyn are letting some of
their regular customers take
basic necessities on credit.‘‘TTHHEEYY RREEAALLLLYY
NNEEEEDD TTHHEE FFOOOODD
AANNDD II’’MM GGLLAADD
WWEE CCAANN HHEELLPP’’
MMaannyy bbooddeeggaass ooffffeerr lliiffeelliinnee
ttoo ccuussttoommeerrss aammiidd hhaarrdd ttiimmeess
M
ARCO POGGIO