I’m not looking forward to the end of the month. As part of a global anti-poverty fundraiser, I’ve vowed to take part in a program called Live Below the Line. The unfortunate reality is that 1.5 billion people live on $1.75 a day or less. As a plump and well-fed westerner, I’ve been challenged to do the same and see how it feels. I have to live for five days on less than a cup of coffee a day. Pretty much rice and beans.
I’ve done it before, and it’s very hard. No more eating or drinking for pleasure or comfort. I’m eating just to stay alive. My food is profoundly bland and low in nutrition. No variety. Think how often you enjoy the taste of your food or look forward to your meal. Now imagine an amorphous lump of cooked grains two or three times a day. Nothing green, no meat, no fruit. Day after day. This is the reality for far too many, and it’ll be mine for five days.
Find someone doing Live Below the Line and be generous, because while they endure this for five days, for 1.5 billion it’s never-ending; a preventable reality.
Nathaniel Poole
Victoria, B.C.