As twilight approached on Sunday, Jatin Prajapati set up a folding table on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, outside a shuttered eyebrow-threading salon. Mr. Prajapati, who works at a pharmacy in Manhattan and lives in the neighborhood, spent Sunday handing out bags containing masks, gloves and hand sanitizer to passers-by. They were free, which often surprised them.

“Namaste,” he said, as he handed out bags. “Everybody is scared. I don’t like if somebody is scared,” said Mr. Prajapati, who filled the bags with supplies he bought at local stores with his own money. “I give them the mask and see them smiling, it’s good.”