Quick,what's seven times seven plus ten? If you can tell Ahem "Medy" Alwan, a cashier at Lucky Candy bodega in the Bronx, you could get all the snacks your heart desires. For the past couple weeks, the 20-year-old has been quizzing customers on basic math equations. When a customer gets one right, they get five (well, more like ten) seconds to grab whatever they want in the deli.
For Ahmed "Medy" Alwan, 23,joy is as essential as breakfast-and customers at his family's corner store sometimes struggle for both. So he came up with a clever way to brighten his customers' days. "I've always helped out people in the neighborhood," he says. "They've known me since I was a little kid. I know half of them by name. And, you know, sometimes they need credit."
Lucky Candy is located on a busy street in the Bronx, which is what's known as a food desert, where affordable, healthy food is scarce. Many residents rely on neighborhood shops like Lucky Candy for their daily needs.
Enter the bodega challenge on the social media. Whenever a resident gets an answer right, one of two things usually happens.
Some kids dart for the candy, and who could blame them? Others grab things like rice, oranges, and potatoes, clearly thinking of the family at home.
"They're doing something good," Berto, a student who stopped in after school, told Inside Edition."Because here, we see a lot of people who don't even have anything."
Alwan covers the sprees with his paycheck. But his boss, as known as his father, Saleh Aobad, doesn't mind chipping in too. A Yemeni immigrant, Aobad knows that in one of the toughest, most competitive places in the U.S. , a bit of help goes a long way.
"This changed our relationship with the community big-time," says Alwan."They're showing so much love, and they're lining up at the store for a chance to play."
