A rep for Big Apple bodega owners is pleading with needy New Yorkers to keep their cool and avoid loop neighborhood stores after SNAP benefits possibly expire due to the federal shutdown.

Fernando Mateo, who said this week he’s starting his own new bodega group, said storeowners will have to defend themselves if their stores are looted — and hungry locals could be in harm’s way.

“Let’s face it, when people go hungry and they don’t have money and they have to feed their kids, they’re going to do whatever they have to do to achieve that,” Mateo said Thursday.

“We are just afraid that if they come in and loot, and one of the bodega owners or workers intervene, they could be shot, they could get stabbed, they could get killed,” he said. “And that’s what we want to prevent.”

Mateo’s plea

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