I’ve seen this challenge done by people I follow online a few times. I’ve always had nothing but admiration for the people who take it on, and similarly, I’ve always thought “I really should do this one year”. After all, food is my thing. Charity is most definitely my thing. But I never quite got round to it, and I was able to use excuses to not feel too guilty about it.
But when someone from doit.org got in touch to specifically ask me to do the challenge, I really had no excuse not to.
Food is one of the most important things in my life. I put time and effort into it – cooking it, eating it, photographing it, talking about it, making videos about it. I love it. I’m also very lucky in that I’ve got a job and a life where I’m able to afford to spend money on it. Not a lot of money, but enough that I’m able to experiment, I’m able to go out to restaurants every now and then and I’m able to go to bed with a full tummy every night.
Not everyone has that luxury. 20% of the world live in extreme poverty, with barely £5 a week to survive on. I am dreading having to live off £5 for just five days – imagine if that was your life? I know this week is going to be painful and miserable, but at the end of it I get to skip away and enjoy a proper meal. 20% of people don’t. 20% of people need to use that £5 to feed, clothe, house and entertain themselves. And their families. £5 for a whole week. I can spend double that in Pret on a particularly bad day.
How it’s going to work for me
* From Monday 27th April to Friday 1st May, I am going to feed myself for £5. I keep saying this but it genuinely has yet to sink in. £5 for a week. Holy crap
* I am going to vlog every day of it – the first video will go up on Monday morning and will be me talking about the challenge. I’ll then do a video diary for every day that week, with a recap to go up Saturday morning. Not gonna lie, it’ll probably involve me eating a pizza.
* I’m also going to be sharing some of the recipes I’ve been making to feed me this week on my food blog
* I’ll almost certainly be whining about it on Twitter and sharing photos of my tiny, tiny meals on Instagram
This is a monumentally bad time for me to be doing this. I got married on the 18th April and have been on honeymoon this week, so have basically been throwing food at my face for a week and eating whatever went in. I’m also going to be returning to work after a two week holiday on Monday. I will not be used to getting up early, I will not be used to having to work, and I will certainly not be used to not eating pretty much constantly. My colleagues will be greeted with a very hungry, very crabby me.
This week is going to be crap, but it’s nothing compared to what a fifth of the world go through their entire lives. If you can, please donate. If nothing else, it’ll be really embarrassing for me if I don’t reach my target.
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