Shop Rite’s well-stocked toilet paper aisle in East Oakland is a surprisingly tranquil place during the global pandemic that has made the essential commodity a symbol of privation.

Customers from the community, which is predominantly populated by black and brown low-income residents, apologize when their baskets get within 6 feet of each other, which happens often at the store. And everyone, it seems, adheres to the store’s one-container-per-customer limit without complaint.

East Oakland is familiar with hardships, and the coronavirus crisis has only exacerbated the community’s long-standing problems, be it residents’ access to food or health services.

Data about East Oakland was dire well before the pandemic. More than half of Oakland’s 412,040 residents live in East Oakland, but only two bus lines — on International and Foothill boulevards — connect the area to downtown, where there are more restaurants and stores. The opening of a new $216 million bus and rapid transit system along International Boulevard, which could revitalize the area, is delayed until the end of April, according to transit officials.

But in navigating the pandemic, East Oaklanders are embracing their isolation and, amid a wave of small business closures and growing unemployment, turning to each other to survive. But it hasn’t been easy.

There’s an understated urgency permeating the busy little market on Bancroft Avenue as shoppers, clad in protective masks and gloves, buy cleaning supplies, rice and bags of onions. Since East Oakland has few grocery options outside of liquor stores and small corner markets, Shop Rite is positioned as a local beacon for those in need, especially since Alameda County imposed its shelter-in-place order on March 16.

Yet turning a profit during trying times isn’t what’s on the mind of Shop Rite owner Ali Albasiery. Nor is it really possible at this point, he said.

“I know these people, so when they come in and they have $30 worth of items that they really need, but they only have $19 to pay, I’ll do what I can for them because I know times are hard,” Albasiery said. “I’m giving out maybe $200 to $300 per day to people who don’t have enough. What’s more important than a profit is making sure everyone has what they need.”

Nearly 50% of East Oakland residents are low-income, and nearly everyone — more than 90% — are people of color, according to city data. Before the spread of coronavirus, East Oakland had higher death rates due to heart disease, stroke and lung cancer than either Oakland or Alameda County, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. The area also has one of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the region, and life expectancy in East Oakland is 72.7 years, compared to 80.9 years in San Francisco, records show.

All of those factors may place East Oakland residents at a higher risk in the pandemic than other communities. The county doesn’t track COVID-19 cases by neighborhood. But four people have died of the coronavirus in Alameda County, and as of Friday, 220 county residents have tested positive. Two are at Highland Hospital in Oakland, a spokesman said.

“East Oakland is suffering from (a long-term) lack of resources, support and political will from our local government,” said Candice Elder, a resident and executive director of East Oakland Collective, a community organization that serves the surrounding area.

Despite that startling reality in the face of the pandemic, Elder said residents aren’t panicking, but instead are pooling limited resources within the community. Elder’s organization delivered 400 meals and 35 sanitation kits to local residents. To support small East Oakland businesses that are losing income, she is working with chef Aaron of Mexiq, a local catering business, to provide meals for the homeless — either living in RVs or in tents along San Leandro Boulevard.

“Here is our time for East Oakland to unite even further and rally around support for our East Oakland residents. We are all stepping up and rising to the occasion of COVID-19 responses,” Elder said.

While some grocery deliveries include items from Shop Rite, many others are traced to Gazzali’s Supermarket in East Oakland, a family-owned business with five locations across the Bay Area. The store has had a steady stream of customers since the shelter-in-place order.

Faye Algazzali, who manages the East Oakland market with her siblings, said her grocery store — one of few places in the community offering fresh produce and meats — has an obligation to provide for residents, even if it means a greater chance of exposing herself to the coronavirus.

“Would I like to have a two-week break or something? Sure, but that can’t happen right now. We know a lot of our customers don’t have the means to get around the city to other areas to shop, so they need us,” she said. “There’s a kind of selflessness to all of this, maybe, but it’s more just us doing what we always do. East Oakland people take care of each other.”

But caring about a customer base can take businesses like Gazzali’s and Shop Rite only so far. Both Albasiery and Algazzali said they are having issues with wholesalers raising the prices on essential items like water and bread, which could get passed along to the customer. For now, both stores have kept their prices below market rate.

A 2-pound bag of yellow onions at Shop Rite costs 99 cents. One pound of the same onions at Gazzali’s costs 89 cents. At a big-box retailer like Costco, the price of yellow onions is more expensive than both locations, at around $1.30 per pound.

“A lot of these people last week were spending the last money they had in their bank accounts or on their EBT cards to get groceries. Now they need things again and we don’t want them to have to pay more for what they got last time,” Albasiery said. “At some point it’s going to become an inventory issue for stores like us where we just don’t have the items our shoppers need.”

EBT cards look like credit or debit cards and contain funds from government assistance-programs.

Another example of small-business owners giving back to East Oakland is Marcus Dyer, of Dyer Transportation Services, who is giving rides to volunteers at the Alameda County Food Bank. Business is low due to the shelter-in-place order and crisis, so Dyer is finding other ways to give back.

The partnership among residents, churches and community organizations keeps East Oaklanders hopeful, said Carolyn Jackson, the executive director of Black Cultural Zone Collaborative, a group of residents, government agencies, churches and grassroots groups that work to help keep black people in East Oakland.

“I’m seeing resilience,” she said. “Just knowing that we are in this together. I’m born and raised in East Oakland, it’s always been that way and I’m just glad to see it’s still there.”

It isn’t just small business owners finding ways to help their neighbors in East Oakland. Residents like John Jones III are coordinating grocery drop-offs for seniors and activities for children out of school. He said residents in East Oakland know what they need.

“There are all these built-in inherent risks that come with living in a marginalized community,” Jones said.

East Oakland schools are contributing during the pandemic by hosting events where families can pick up prepackaged breakfasts and lunches during the week. Among the participating schools is East Oakland’s Fremont High School.

East Oakland by the numbers East Oakland by the numbers Of Oakland’s 412,040 residents, more than half — 232,161— live in East Oakland. Here is a breakdown of neighborhoods, according to city data: The median income for residents in most of the East Oakland neighborhoods is from $40,000 to $45,000 a year. People of color make up 87% of East Oakland’s population, and about half of those residents are low-income, meaning their family earns below the area median of about $78,000. East Oakland’s most affluent neighborhood is the East Oakland hills, where the median income is $89,000 and 73% of residents are people of color. By contrast, in the North Oakland hills, the median income is $158,000 and the population is only 31% people of color.

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Tom Skjervheim, co-principal at Fremont High, said last week that East Oakland schools gave meals to more than 2,000 East Bay families. Some of the meals include fruit and canned items, among other things.

“A lot of folks are losing their jobs right now. People who were making it paycheck to paycheck aren’t anymore. They need this,” he said.

At Esperanza Elementary School in East Oakland, most parents are suddenly out of a job because of the shelter-in-place order. At the school of 350 children, more than 80% of families have at least one parent out of work. And in 60% of homes, both parents were unemployed because of the virus.

But in keeping with the community’s spirit of coming together in the crisis, Esperanza Elementary’s employees set up a GoFundMe page to help the families.

As East Oakland residents confront the immediate crisis, Councilman Loren Taylor, who represents part of East Oakland, said he is looking at the future. Historically, low-income communities like those in East Oakland continue to feel the impacts of a crisis long after more affluent communities bounce back, he said.

Taylor said he plans to examine how the federal stimulus package will be distributed equitably and work to ensure that eviction moratoriums won’t force East Oakland residents to repay months of back rent when the freeze is over.

East Oakland’s disparity is evident from a health and economic standpoint, he said.

“If we are not paying particular attention to it, those will only be exacerbated both in the immediate term and in the longer term,” Taylor said.

Sarah Ravani and Justin Phillips are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @SarRavani @JustMrPhillips