Late afternoon is the busiest time at the food bank in the Shek Kip Mei public housing estate. That is when mothers, having collected their children from school, drop by on the way home to pick up ingredients for dinner – rice, tinned fish in black bean sauce, fresh pork if there is any, spam if there isn’t.
Mrs Chow, a widow with a son and daughter aged nine and 11, is among an increasing number of low-income earners who have started using the service in one of Hong Kong’s poorest neighbourhoods because rising inflation has stretched her already meagre income to the limit.
“We eat less now because everything from fish to rice has gone up in price. We never eat out. In fact, we hardly ever do anything apart from going to work and school. As our one special treat this summer, I took them to the botanical and zoological garden, which is free,” the part-time domestic helper says sheepishly.