With so many New Yorkers out of work and businesses closed because of the coronavirus, more and more people are turning to food pantries for help. As our Amy Yensi reports, the pantries themselves are also in need.

The line of people that wait to get inside the food pantry on the Grand Concourse wraps around the block. The number of people who come here for help has tripled during the pandemic, according volunteers who work there, and It’s getting harder to meet the growing demand.

“Money is not a thing right now. We don’t have a lot of resources, so the pantry is helping us a lot,” said Leisy Morales. Leisy is a pantry client also a volunteer there.

Julie Spitzer manages the pantry for Bronx Works, a community-based organization. As demand for food surges, she says pantries like this one are struggling. Private donations have fallen off, and many volunteers are staying away, because they fear getting sick.

So staff members are coming in on their days off to pitch in and some clients, like Leisy Morales, are now helping, too. They know the community needs them, but they are afraid.

“Some of them can be sick. Some of them could be healthy. We don’t check those types of things. We are here to feed everyone. But we also put ourselves at risk because we don’t have proper equipment to or PPE devices to protect ourselves and we have families to go home to,” said Spitzer.

Four Bronx Works staff members tested positive for COVID-19, according to Spitzer. The pantry gets some funding for food from the city, but the organization doesn’t have enough  money to buy all the safety gear they need. Each staffer only gets one mask, and they have to make it last.

“Our staff is reusing the same mask, over and over and over again. We have people become infected because of that," Spitzer said.

On April 15, Mayor de Blasio announced more aid to help feed struggling New Yorkers. That includes $25 million for pantries facing a huge surge in demand, as New Yorkers continue to lose their jobs.

NY1 asked for a comment from the mayor’s Food Czar Kathryn Garcia. A City Hall spokeswoman replied, “We will reach out to Bronx Works to ensure we can support them as they continue to serve their community during this crisis."

“We are frontline people as well. We are providing a lot of services, putting ourselves at risk throughout this pandemic to provide services,” said Spitzer.