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Coronavirus News: Hunts Point market trying to meet new demands during pandemic

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Hunts Point market navigates shifting demands during pandemic

Candace McCown talks to workers managing increased demands for produce while short-staffed

HUNTS POINT, Bronx (WABC) -- Hunts Point is a busy place in the middle of the night with thousands of essential workers getting food to the places where people can purchase it.

Every night they load and unload trucks full of produce to get to restaurants and grocery stores.

They've had to adapt since the pandemic hit.

With many restaurants shutting down, they estimate they've lost about 30 percent of their business, which equates to nearly $112 million.

However, grocery store demand shot up and they're working to keep up with a diminished work force.

Many of those workers are sick, while others unable to work with their children out of school.

Hunts Point is hiring and filling holes to get food on the table.

"This whole thing had made me nervous, I'm loaded with anxiety. I don't know what the future has to hold. We are trying the best we can so it's very difficult to gage what's going on and what the future is going to hold for us," Joel Fierman of Fierman Produce Exchange said.

They're also working around stores that do not have enough staff to unload the product and stock shelves and with local food banks donating the excess food that they've not been able to sell.