‘Live Below the Line’ Week

Yesterday marked the last day of the Live Below the Line challenge put on by the Global Poverty Project – a five-day challenge to live on $1.75 per day food and drink. This is roughly the ‘line’ below which 1.2 billion people on Earth subsist for all their needs. The idea is to raise awareness and raise funds for anti-poverty projects. I chose to raise funds for Raising the Village, which works with local governments in remote parts of Africa.

Fortunately, the challenge only applies to nutrition. My life carried on otherwise as usual – with a roof over my head, a hot shower each morning, transportation, etcetera. (This week we were talking a lot about housing and homelessness as well.) It occurred to me that even my phone service runs more than $1.75 a day. Taken together, I’ve reflected a lot upon the abundance my family is lucky to enjoy.

Recognition is due to members of my staff, and to City Councillors Andrew Knack and Michael Walters, who also took part. The challenge has been a powerful conversation starter in our city, and thanks to media interest we’ve raised awareness about poverty both globally and in our city. This coincides well with the continuing work of my Task Force on Eliminating Poverty in Edmonton within a generation, which you can read about here.

The most eye-opening aspect has been the experience of living on a very limited diet. Several of us at my office took on the challenge and that allowed us to pool our resources. Steel cut oats with a bit of sugar and cinnamon ran about 30 cents of the budget each morning. For dinner each night, one hamburger patty (88 cents) and one bun (12 cents). Lunch was our adventure, our change of pace: split pea soup, mac’n’cheese, beans with caramelized onion, instant noodles with a sprinkle of chicken. These ranged between 30-45 cents. And it’s been tap water exclusively since Monday morning – sometimes hot, with a splash of lemon to really spice things up. We remained well within the budget, and we enjoyed great camaraderie in the effort. [Incidentally, my former Executive Assistant Leanne Brown has just released a cook book on how to eat healthy on the successor to the New York food stamp program, which has been downloaded over 100,000 times this week!]

We were probably below 1,000 calories per day, which was a real adjustment for my body – and my mind. The first two days were marked by headaches that I attributed to fluctuating blood sugar and the cold turkey of losing the caffeine upon which I may be overly dependent. But as the days wore on I felt my energy level drop and my mental focus was certainly affected. I struggled at times to find words when speaking. Further, I found my emotions more difficult to govern.

This first-hand understanding of malnourishment has been extremely revealing. I can understand how much harder it would be to perform at work or in a job interview, how much harder it would be to parent effectively. I can understand how much harder it would be for a child to hold attention and to learn in a classroom. And though I am no expert, I am superficially familiar with the scientific connections between good nutrition and brain development for children. The point is not having enough to eat at a young age can limit a child’s potential for the rest of their life.

After this experience, my resolve both as Mayor of Edmonton and as a global citizen is only further strengthened to take action to eliminate poverty.