Audio slideshow by Elettra Fiumi and David Patrick Alexander.

Christian Escobar, 32, sells ice-cream and other frozen snacks from his rented Mister Softee truck seven days a week in the Hunts Point and Longwood neighborhoods of the Bronx. The Ecuadorian has been serving this area for the past three years. On a good, hot summer day he can make $900–but on a bad, rainy day he makes as little as $50. He often works 12-hour days to make enough money to help support his 8-year old daughter, Christy, who lives in Texas, where he lives on his time off, from November through February.