Day 22: Freezers

Day 22: Tuesday 22nd January 2013

Tuesday's Menu:

Breakfast: Porridge with water, half chopped banana and 1 tsp of sugar.

Lunch: Half Banana

Dinner: Sausage Casserole and portion of mash.
Dessert: Half sachet of custard (I have now perfected the technique and it tasted ok)

Breakfast

Today was another great day, one more step was made towards the finish line and I haven't felt hungry or un satisfied all day. Wah hey! I feel like I have actually eaten really well today. Throwing a banana into the mix has made all the difference. I felt so full after breakfast and could almost feel the goodness of some fresh fruit at work in my body. My energy levels were high and I felt well prepared for the day ahead. I saved the second half of the banana for lunch which helped to keep me going until dinner. The banana I had today, was the first fresh piece of fruit or veg I have had in 2 weeks. It felt like the most delicious piece of fruit I had ever eaten. 

Lunch

I made the sausage and bean casserole for dinner, making enough to last 3 more meals. It was absolutely delicious and I was really quite full afterwards. I have decided to freeze the casserole so it can have it later on this week or next. I did question whether this is an authentic way of preserving the food as most people living below the poverty line will not have access to a freezer. I have been eating frozen food all month, and keeping a lot of food in the fridge, but I hadn't really considered whether I should have been doing this or not. 

I have been struggling this month to determine how authentic should I be in terms of living below the line. The challenge is technically spend only £1 a day on food and drink, which is exactly what I have done. However, I am painfully aware that £1 a day on just food and drink in now way compares to the reality of true poverty. There is a fine line and I am still trying to work out where it lies.  I don't want to challenge myself, but equally in some cases I could be going to far in an attempt to be authentic. Should I be worrying about the finer technicalities such as the fact I live in a warm house, have running water and access to medicine? If I wanted to be truly authentic and live below the line, I would be living in a tent, walking miles for water, definitely not driving my car and would probably not have been able to store my food in the fridge. I think this would have been taking it too far. It is not really a realistic challenge for a month. One I am not sure I would be able to manage such a challenge and two I think the strain of a more intense challenge would put on my family and friends would be too much. 

I know I have written about this before, but every day I am hit with something new that is restricted by living in poverty. Today for the first time I have thought about preserving food. If you can barely afford to eat, I doubt you can afford to run a fridge freezer to keep your food fresh. Not being able to keep your food fresh is massive economic disadvantage and will further limit the types of food you can buy. It is gradually striking me how many small but very significant aspects of our daily life we take for granted. Aspects that are simply not available for those living below the poverty line. I just don't think we can begin to comprehend how difficult it would be to live in extreme poverty. 

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