Bronx food pantry empty for first time in 10 years, forcing them to turn families away

The shelves at a Bronx food pantry have been bare for the past two weeks as hungry New Yorkers face heightened food insecurity at the beginning of the New Year. The Albanian American Open Hand Association (AAOHA), located in Pelham Parkway, fed around 800 weekly before the pandemic, but that has since doubled to 1,600.

For the first time in 10 years, the pantry has been forced to turn people away. For weeks now, hungry New Yorkers have lined up outside AAOHA on Thursdays and Fridays – when food is distributed. Food pantry president Alexander Nilaj told The Post Tuesday that he has had to turn them away. “It’s very heartbreaking.

People line up at six or seven in the morning,” the 52 year old said in a phone interview. “We tell them: ‘Don’t wait, we have no food today.'” Despite the warning, many patrons continue waiting until anywhere between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. — hoping a “miracle” to happen and another food shipment to arrive.

Nilaj, who lives two blocks from the pantry, said he expects to have enough food to feed more than 1,200 this coming Thursday and Friday after New York Congressman Ritchie Torres agreed to wire him $5,000. “Upon finding out that a Bronx food pantry no longer had food for the first time in a decade, I contributed, via my campaign, $5,000 to the food pantry’s sponsor,” Torres told the Post.

But Nilaj doesn’t know what the pantry will do after that. “We always had food [before], maybe not enough, but we had always food,” the Albanian born president said. “We feed everybody.” The private owned business doesn’t receive state or city funding and relies on donations and help from local businesses, alongside the 30 volunteers who help Nilaj distribute the food.

They often feed families and single moms, as well as the sick and elderly population across the five boroughs, and in the last two weeks, he’s had to watch them “turn back and cry” when he told them he had nothing to offer. Nilaj, who immigrated to the US 18 years ago, has his “fingers crossed” that more donations and funding will come in.

The Albanian first started to notice his shelves dwindling around Christmas time and he had to start turning hundreds away as more people came in search of food. Many of the patrons had lost their jobs or were just in more need as rising costs continued to cut into Americans’ wallets. “It turned very tough,” Nilaj said of the holiday season.

“It’s hard.” Nilaj is now asking for donations and hoping state and city governments will help him feed the mouths of hungry New Yorkers. But for now, he’s just focusing on getting the food for this week’s handout and hoping to feed as many as possible..