For the past five days, I have given up chocolate, biscuits and crisps — but not in a bid to lose weight.
I have been taking part in Live Below the Line, a national challenge in which 17,000 people across the country attempt to survive on £1 a day to raise awareness about global poverty.
Jewish social action group Tzedek is one of 32 charities participating and I had agreed to raise money for the group by spending the barest minimum on food and drink in a bid to understand the experience of the 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty.
By way of encouragement, Jude Williams, Tzedek’s chief executive, told me: “The point is to get you thinking about poverty and how the money you raise will go to helping people help themselves.”
So, five pound note in hand, my first stop was Waitrose where I soon realised I could barely afford to buy a potato, let alone a basket of goods needed to last the five days.
Instead I headed to budget store Lidl from where I emerged in a mere 20 minutes, shocked at what my fiver had bought me. In my basket was the largest sweet potato I have ever seen, cabbage, rice, carrots, chickpeas, baking potatoes, pasta sauce, pasta, porridge oats and onions, all for £4.82
Now for the cooking. I’m not a whizz in the kitchen — usually I come back with the shopping and wait for it to magically turn into dinner. But down came the pots and pans and I set about making what turned out to be an edible, almost nice, chickpea curry on a bed of brown rice.
That curry lasted four of the five days, both for lunch and dinner, alternating with a passable pasta in a tomato sauce. Much to my surprise, I did not get bored with the lack of variety. My real struggle was not snacking between meals. I experienced pangs of jealousy rather than hunger watching others tuck into their croissants and chocolate bars.
It was not take long after I announced my participation in the challenge that I was contacted on social media by people telling me all the things I was doing wrong. One Twitter user complained that I should “mention some of the issues” instead of going on about missing mozzarella.
A bit harsh, I thought, as I tucked into a bowl of porridge made with water for my fourth breakfast in a row.
Then there was a friend in Cambodia, one of the world’s poorest countries, who got in touch to remind me that “people in places like Cambodia don’t have a Lidl, usually it is just rice and some half rotten veg twice a day”.
One third of people in the Asian country live on less than one dollar per day, he added, going without food for two or three days at time, which certainly put my efforts in perspective.
After five days I was not bored of pasta, rice and porridge, although I had begun to fantasise about eating out at a restaurant.
I had raised my target of £200, which will go to aid projects in Asia and Africa.
And as for my weight? Honestly, I haven’t checked.
