With laid-off workers returning from out of state, with the cost of living is skyrocketing, poor Chinese look to save pennies by picking through discarded groceries.

In Manhattan’s Chinatown, the ranks of the impoverished have grown in the wake of the American economic slump. Families unable to pay the grocery bills survive by hook or by crook, cutting costs however possible, and the heartbreaking scene of people picking through trash bins outside supermarkets has become all too common.

The restaurant and garment industries, which have large concentrations of Chinese immigrant employees, have become a barometer for economic conditions. New York restaurant owners are cutting staff positions because of declining profits, and many laid-off out-of-state restaurant workers are swarming back to New York, swelling the population of unemployed immigrants.

With sources of income vanishing, wages decreasing, and costs of living such as rent and transportation spiraling upward, some poor Chinese have taken to cutting costs in their grocery shopping. In New York’s Chinese supermarkets, sales of low-grade prepackaged fruits and vegetables, which often cost less than a dollar, have increased dramatically.

In addition, more and more people flock to supermarkets after-hours to pick through the trash. These scavengers tend to be middle-aged and elderly housewives. They stand in wait as merchants bring their soon-to-be discarded food items out to the street, and then rush forward to pick through the boxes, retrieving still-edible vegetables for their larders.

Every evening around seven, a small crowd gathers at the back door of Hong Kong Supermarket on Allen Street to pick through discarded vegetables. A supermarket employee responsible for disposing of leftover vegetables says that quite a few people come to pick through the leavings, but since the vegetables are trash as far as the supermarket is concerned, the workers don’t drive the scavengers away, simply reminding them to be careful of hygiene. “Work’s tough to find, and life’s not easy. If vegetables we throw away can help out some poor families, we’re happy to turn a blind eye,” he says.

An open-air produce stand on Forsyth Street is another frequent destination for impoverished after-hours scavengers. A Chinese worker at the produce stand says that their fruit and vegetables are already cheaper by half than supermarket produce, but many Chinese people are still not willing to buy them, waiting instead for the stand to close and then descending upon it to rummage through discarded vegetables and fruits. Nonetheless, she sees it as a favor, less work cleaning up trash for her at the end of the day, and is happy to oblige.

According to the Federal Department of Agriculture’s food shortage statistics, 99 out of every 1,000 households in New York State suffer from food shortages, and of them 33 households face severe food shortages. Authorities predict that these numbers will increase as the effects of the economic slump are felt.

Surveys by the Asian American Federation and similar organizations have shown that New York’s Chinese immigrants are often ignorant of government welfare services, and their poor English often hinders them in applying; meanwhile, the costs of language assistance, as well as rent, health care, heat, electricity, and other essentials have greatly increased, pushing more Chinese immigrants into poverty.

Representatives of the Fujian Association say that some new Chinese immigrants do not have legal identification, and are therefore unable to apply for unemployment benefits and other forms of welfare. If they cannot find legal employment quickly and suffer from debt as well, they can easily fall into poverty.