so thin and underfed

"Every once in a while at the hotel there would be a banquet. A banquet it was indeed, even for those lined up at the back door, the extra helps. Sometimes as many as twenty additional hands were called in. I noticed that at a banquet—behind the scenes at least—nobody seemed to get tired of eating, ever. At the beginning we were idle for a few minutes sometimes. Then each contrived to get a handful of nuts or a swallow of coffee . . . taking our last course first. I could see why the extra helpers ate. They all looked so thin and underfed, I think they had no other job. Day after day just waiting for banquets.Maybe they called at all the big hotels. Maybe they hunted garbage. I don't know."
~~ from  East Goes West  by Younghill Kang