Store manager gives kids free food in exchange for great report cards

Sydney Page

Russell Vinson, 11, rushed to his local corner store after school. He went straight to the counter and handed his report card to the man behind it.

“Russell, again!” exclaimed Wail Alselwi, the manager of Zack’s Finest Deli & Grocery in Staten Island. “I see that stamp right there, man, honor roll!”

Alselwi - who goes by “Wally” - handed Russell a $100 bill, then told him to grab whatever he wanted from the store to celebrate his 92.67 percent average.

Russell got a carton of eggs for his mother, who is a baker, plus a bunch of snacks and sweets for himself.

“Let’s go, Russell! Keep it up,” Alselwi said.

Russell is one of dozens of students who have come into the bodega to show their grades to Alselwi over the past two years. In exchange for good grades, Alselwi lets students take some goodies for free, and if they earn above a 90 percent average, they get $100 as well, plus a T-shirt.

“I push them to do better in school,” Alselwi said. “Believe me, it’s working.”

Russell lives across the street from the convenience store and has been bringing his report cards to Alselwi since the beginning of the school year.

“Wally was very, very impressed by his grades,” said Russell’s mother, Manisha Smith.

Although Russell has always been a good student, he improved his grades this year with Alselwi’s encouragement. On Russell’s most recent report card, his average was 97.25 percent.

“I love it,” said Smith. “I definitely think it’s a good thing that he’s doing.”

The idea came to Alselwi, 36, in 2023, after he made a bet with one of his regular customers, Zamier Davies, then 12. If Zamier got good grades on his report card, Alselwi said he would give him something in the store free.

“I wanted to help motivate him,” Alselwi said.

When Zamier got his report card back a few days later, he presented his 88 percent average to Alselwi and asked for an Oreo milkshake.

With permission from Zamier’s parents, Alselwi shared a video of their bet on TikTok. Not long after, other local students started popping by with their report cards.

“I couldn’t just deny the rest of the kids,” said Alselwi, noting that he began by paying for the goodies out of his own pocket. “I started doing it for all the kids in the neighborhood.”

Jessica Pole said she has noticed a difference in her 8-year-old son Neyon’s attitude toward school since he started sharing his report cards with Alselwi last year. Pole and her family live three blocks from the store.

“My son wasn’t doing badly, but he wasn’t interested,” said Pole. “Now with Wally, it makes him want to go hard.”

“What he’s doing is amazing,” she added. “He is making the kids want to do better, want to go to school and want to get good grades.”

Students who earn over an 80 percent average can take “whatever they want,” Alselwi said, and those who get between a 70 and 80 percent average are allowed to take $10 worth of items. Students with lower grades are also rewarded if they show major improvements. He rewards students for perfect attendance, too.

Recently, one eighth-grader went from getting percentages of 20s and 30s on his report card to 70s, 80s and 90s. Alselwi gave him $100 and told him to go shopping for free in the store.

“There are kids that have improved a lot,” said Alselwi, who has three daughters, ages 10, 6 and 2.

Alselwi posts his interactions with the students to his TikTok account with permission from their parents, he said. Many of the videos have gone viral, with commenters praising Alselwi.

“One day he’ll be giving his graduation speech and mention the kind man who encouraged his excellence. God bless you,” someone wrote on a video.

Commenters also regularly point out that some students pick out staples for their families, such as milk, eggs, oil and bread.

“That boy grabbing groceries as well and not just all junk food is heartwarming,” someone wrote on a recent video.

“Notice how he gets stuff for his family. Oil, bread, eggs. What a thoughtful kid,” someone else wrote.

To help fund his report card initiative, Alselwi made a website and started selling merchandise featuring his TikTok handle, “Island Ock.” (Ock is a slang word for “the man behind the counter of a bodega or deli.”) He sells backpacks that say “grades for grabs.”

Many people requested to contribute money to his efforts, Alselwi said, so he also started a GoFundMe.

“Now I can accept more kids,” Alselwi said, adding that students from other parts of New York have caught wind of the store and started coming in. “That’s a very big help.”

April Mayas said Alselwi’s initiative has made a marked difference in her daughter’s motivation at school.

“She goes over there happily with her report card, and she knows she’ll walk out even happier,” Mayas said of her daughter, Madison Mayas, 17. “It gives them incentive to want to try harder.”

Mayas moved around the corner from the store about two years ago, which is when she met Alselwi.

“He’s just a really nice guy,” she said. “I’m really happy that there’s someone like Wally in the neighborhood.”

Alselwi said he plans to continue what he’s doing, and perhaps it will encourage others to do the same in their own communities.

“I see the progress the kids make. … It pushes them toward greatness,” Alselwi said. “It makes me feel really, really happy.”