.
“The poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty." That line, from the World Food Programme, stuck with me as I went shopping this weekend to prepare for the Live Below the Line Challenge. I could not help but be reminded of how privileged I was as I walked around comparing prices. And that is exactly what the challenge is meant to do.

The Live Below the Line Challenge aims to raise awareness of what it is like to live in extreme poverty. As an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, it works to end poverty by building a coalition of people passionate about the cause, and sometimes the best way to create a passionate follower is through experience.

In my career as a journalist, I have studied poverty, food security, and water sanitation issues, and I have read the statistics: 870 million people globally suffered from chronic undernourishment between 2010 to 2012. In my own backyard, Utah is ranked fourth in the U.S. for the highest rates of food insecurity. About 400,000 Utahns risk missing one meal every day; one in ten Utahns, including one in eight children, live in poverty. Yet I have been remarkably privileged to never experience it personally. Even during college when I was down to my last dollar, I still had networks I could rely on and places I could turn to. It is likely I will never have to go through extreme poverty. Those statistics too often become just numbers and words on a page, so large as to be incomprehensible. We realize that poverty is a problem, but it is impossible to realize the impact it has on the personal level from statistics alone.

The Live Below the Line Challenge makes it a little easier for its participants to join in: the international Extreme Poverty Line was defined by the World Bank in 2005 as living on less than $1.50 per day; Challenge participants only have to limit their food intake to $1.50 per day. That meant I am privy to a number of different privileges: I can drive to a grocery store where food prices are cheaper (I live within walking distance of one, but it is much more expensive than Walmart would be); I had a smartphone and internet access that I could use to look up recipes, add up prices in stores, and make lists of what I could afford; I had the disposable income to be able to buy and store food in bulk, therefore driving my cost per meal down. Most importantly, unlike 75 percent of women in the developing world, I own land on which I can grow a little garden, and I have access to clean water.

That little garden, although the size of a postage stamp, will come to be a source of most of my greens for the next week. In the Live Below the Line Challenge, the rules state that tap water is free, and food from the garden is acceptable, as long as the costs of growing are factored in. For my week ahead, I will be only using veggies that had costs incurred before 2014: the garlic I planted in fall 2012; the arugula grown from plants that I allowed to go to seed in 2013 in order to reseed their little patch; the kale planted in spring 2013 that somehow survived the winter and is still growing strong; the serrano peppers I harvested in fall 2013 and dried for storing; and herbs, including chives, rosemary, sage, and oregano, that I have kept alive for several years.

But knowing I had those veggies in my own backyard was not enough to keep me from worrying. You see, I am chronically hypoglycemic, meaning that my blood glucose level is regularly too low (I have been told is probably a precursor to the genetic Type 2 Diabetes that runs through both sides of my family). I discovered my condition when I passed out on a bus one day during college. But it has not been a condition that has bothered me for several years now, as I am able to keep it under control by eating a diet high in proteins and always having a snack in my purse for if I begin to feel the effects come on. In this Challenge, however, snacks are almost completely off-limits, and meat is expensive. (The best price for ground beef I could find was $3.19 per pound, meaning it costs 80 cents for a 4 ounce serving; chicken comes out to 54 cents per 4 ounce serving.) My challenge for the week ahead will be to lay out a meal plan that stays within the cost parameters, and also is healthy and filling.

Day 1 Menu

  • Beverage: Water
  • Breakfast: 2 ounces of Special K dry cereal (1.75 cents per ounce), 1/2 cup of milk (7.5 cents) = 9.25 cents
  • Lunch: 1/2 baked potato (19 cents), with 1 slice of American cheese (12 cents), two tablespoons of sour cream (4 cents), dash of salt (1 cent), sprinkling of chives = 36 cents
  • Afternoon Snack: 1 Banana = 17 cents
  • Dinner: Spicy White Bean Soup, adapted from this Poor Girl Eats Well recipe, makes 8 servings (31 cents per serving), with 2 white corn tortillas (4 cents) = 35 cents
  • 8 to 10 cups of water (no cost)
  • 1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes ($1.24)
  • 1 14 ounce can of cannellini beans (68 cents)
  • 1/2 cup of quinoa (24 cents)
  • 1 cup chopped fresh kale (no cost)
  • 1/2 diced yellow onion (29 cents)
  • 4 large garlic cloves, minced (no cost)
  • 1 TBLS sea salt (5 cents)
  • 1 tsp rosemary (no cost)
  • 1 tsp oregano (no cost)
  • 1 TBLS crushed red chile flakes (no cost)
  • Daily Total: $0.99

Before I wrap this piece for the day up, I want you to take a look at what that dinner will cost, and why the price is so low: over half the ingredients come from my garden. Now, remember that statistic I mentioned before: 75 percent of women in the developed world do not own land. Imagine what a difference it could make to women around the world if they were able to own a small plot of land, grow food for their children, and have access to enough of an education to know how to make those crops thrive! Technology will be a large part of the latter point—if women can escape from the growing anti-female education backlash—but this reminds us that in questions of poverty and hunger, access to land is often a root part of the solution.

Note: It was pointed out to me that I miscalculated my breakfast, and that the 14 cents should apply per serving, not per ounce. With a recommended serving of one cup, my 2 ounces of cereal comes out to 1.75 cents. So I have updated my numbers above, including adding in the banana I had for an afternoon snack.

From Monday, May 5th to Friday, May 9th, Diplomatic Courier managing editor Chrisella Herzog will be taking the challenge to live below the line, and blogging about her experiences each day. Follow the Diplomatic Courier's Twitter and Instagram or follow Chrisella at @Chrisella #BelowtheLine for updates. She is raising money for The Water Collective here.

Photo: LexnGer (cc).

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

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Living Below the Line Day 1: Grocery Shopping vs. Gardening

May 5, 2014

“The poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty." That line, from the World Food Programme, stuck with me as I went shopping this weekend to prepare for the Live Below the Line Challenge. I could not help but be reminded of how privileged I was as I walked around comparing prices. And that is exactly what the challenge is meant to do.

The Live Below the Line Challenge aims to raise awareness of what it is like to live in extreme poverty. As an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, it works to end poverty by building a coalition of people passionate about the cause, and sometimes the best way to create a passionate follower is through experience.

In my career as a journalist, I have studied poverty, food security, and water sanitation issues, and I have read the statistics: 870 million people globally suffered from chronic undernourishment between 2010 to 2012. In my own backyard, Utah is ranked fourth in the U.S. for the highest rates of food insecurity. About 400,000 Utahns risk missing one meal every day; one in ten Utahns, including one in eight children, live in poverty. Yet I have been remarkably privileged to never experience it personally. Even during college when I was down to my last dollar, I still had networks I could rely on and places I could turn to. It is likely I will never have to go through extreme poverty. Those statistics too often become just numbers and words on a page, so large as to be incomprehensible. We realize that poverty is a problem, but it is impossible to realize the impact it has on the personal level from statistics alone.

The Live Below the Line Challenge makes it a little easier for its participants to join in: the international Extreme Poverty Line was defined by the World Bank in 2005 as living on less than $1.50 per day; Challenge participants only have to limit their food intake to $1.50 per day. That meant I am privy to a number of different privileges: I can drive to a grocery store where food prices are cheaper (I live within walking distance of one, but it is much more expensive than Walmart would be); I had a smartphone and internet access that I could use to look up recipes, add up prices in stores, and make lists of what I could afford; I had the disposable income to be able to buy and store food in bulk, therefore driving my cost per meal down. Most importantly, unlike 75 percent of women in the developing world, I own land on which I can grow a little garden, and I have access to clean water.

That little garden, although the size of a postage stamp, will come to be a source of most of my greens for the next week. In the Live Below the Line Challenge, the rules state that tap water is free, and food from the garden is acceptable, as long as the costs of growing are factored in. For my week ahead, I will be only using veggies that had costs incurred before 2014: the garlic I planted in fall 2012; the arugula grown from plants that I allowed to go to seed in 2013 in order to reseed their little patch; the kale planted in spring 2013 that somehow survived the winter and is still growing strong; the serrano peppers I harvested in fall 2013 and dried for storing; and herbs, including chives, rosemary, sage, and oregano, that I have kept alive for several years.

But knowing I had those veggies in my own backyard was not enough to keep me from worrying. You see, I am chronically hypoglycemic, meaning that my blood glucose level is regularly too low (I have been told is probably a precursor to the genetic Type 2 Diabetes that runs through both sides of my family). I discovered my condition when I passed out on a bus one day during college. But it has not been a condition that has bothered me for several years now, as I am able to keep it under control by eating a diet high in proteins and always having a snack in my purse for if I begin to feel the effects come on. In this Challenge, however, snacks are almost completely off-limits, and meat is expensive. (The best price for ground beef I could find was $3.19 per pound, meaning it costs 80 cents for a 4 ounce serving; chicken comes out to 54 cents per 4 ounce serving.) My challenge for the week ahead will be to lay out a meal plan that stays within the cost parameters, and also is healthy and filling.

Day 1 Menu

  • Beverage: Water
  • Breakfast: 2 ounces of Special K dry cereal (1.75 cents per ounce), 1/2 cup of milk (7.5 cents) = 9.25 cents
  • Lunch: 1/2 baked potato (19 cents), with 1 slice of American cheese (12 cents), two tablespoons of sour cream (4 cents), dash of salt (1 cent), sprinkling of chives = 36 cents
  • Afternoon Snack: 1 Banana = 17 cents
  • Dinner: Spicy White Bean Soup, adapted from this Poor Girl Eats Well recipe, makes 8 servings (31 cents per serving), with 2 white corn tortillas (4 cents) = 35 cents
  • 8 to 10 cups of water (no cost)
  • 1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes ($1.24)
  • 1 14 ounce can of cannellini beans (68 cents)
  • 1/2 cup of quinoa (24 cents)
  • 1 cup chopped fresh kale (no cost)
  • 1/2 diced yellow onion (29 cents)
  • 4 large garlic cloves, minced (no cost)
  • 1 TBLS sea salt (5 cents)
  • 1 tsp rosemary (no cost)
  • 1 tsp oregano (no cost)
  • 1 TBLS crushed red chile flakes (no cost)
  • Daily Total: $0.99

Before I wrap this piece for the day up, I want you to take a look at what that dinner will cost, and why the price is so low: over half the ingredients come from my garden. Now, remember that statistic I mentioned before: 75 percent of women in the developed world do not own land. Imagine what a difference it could make to women around the world if they were able to own a small plot of land, grow food for their children, and have access to enough of an education to know how to make those crops thrive! Technology will be a large part of the latter point—if women can escape from the growing anti-female education backlash—but this reminds us that in questions of poverty and hunger, access to land is often a root part of the solution.

Note: It was pointed out to me that I miscalculated my breakfast, and that the 14 cents should apply per serving, not per ounce. With a recommended serving of one cup, my 2 ounces of cereal comes out to 1.75 cents. So I have updated my numbers above, including adding in the banana I had for an afternoon snack.

From Monday, May 5th to Friday, May 9th, Diplomatic Courier managing editor Chrisella Herzog will be taking the challenge to live below the line, and blogging about her experiences each day. Follow the Diplomatic Courier's Twitter and Instagram or follow Chrisella at @Chrisella #BelowtheLine for updates. She is raising money for The Water Collective here.

Photo: LexnGer (cc).

The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.