How I went hungry to raise awareness of poverty this week

TGF!! The phrase has a whole new meaning to me this week… for five days I haven’t spent more than £1 a day on all my food and drink. “Why, oh why?!” I hear you ask. Well, to raise awareness about global poverty and the 1.4billion people who go to bed hungry every night, I’ve done the same as part of the Live below the Line Campaign.

It’s staggering that nearly a fifth of the people on the planet live on less than a pound a day for all their food, fuel, shelter, clothing. Going to bed hungry every night, in fact, being constantly hungry all week, certainly makes you think about the vast inequality and unfairness of the world. The fact that we have an obesity crisis in the West while people are hungry in the South, to me, represents a global system in chaos.

So, has the campaign made me think? Yes. Have I raised awareness? I hope so. Have I raised money? Some.

But, to my surprise, the Live below the Line campaign has made me think far more about food poverty in the UK. I was aware of the issue, particularly because Team v ran an amazing food poverty campaign last year to tackle the problem.

On Sunday morning I was walking backwards and forwards between Sainsbury’s and Tesco because economy beans are 47p at Sainsbury’s and 44p at Tesco and that makes a difference when you only have 500p for your weekly shop. It’s brought home to me just how hard it must be for the millions of people in the UK who are living on, or below, the poverty line. To eat a well-balanced diet would be tough, to eat your 5-a-day would be nigh on impossible.

I’m not pretending to have any answers to global food security, obesity, food poverty, underpaid farmers, food subsidies and the whole host of other complex issues that surround the seemingly straightforward business of feeding ourselves but I do know we all need to think more about it.

For more information on poverty in the UK check out this Joseph Rowntree Foundation report. Join ONE’s campaign on food security.

Which issues or campaign would you care enough about to give something up?

If you're aged between 18-24, you can have the chance to lead your very own campaigns by applying to be part of Team v!