End Hunger Fast - my Lent Challenge

Like most other Churches, St Michael's Stourport and All Saints' Wilden are food bank collection points. Every week members of the congregations contribute as much as they can to try to help feed people who are living on the edge and unable to afford to eat properly and heat their homes. It feels like a drop in the ocean. It also feels like a huge injustice that, in such a rich country, people are going without food on a scale that has not been seen for decades. Meanwhile, some are taking home fat salaries and bonuses and eating fine food and enjoying expensive wines and whiskies. It's an imbalance that exists on a global scale, with the rich living off the backs of the poor - both within nations and across national boundaries. What has shocked and scandalised the great British public is that it's happening right on our doorstep; to people we know.
There are so many questions and discussions to be had; politics, economics, ethics, spirituality...and like many others, I've been joining in those debates.

For Lent, though, I wanted to do something more visceral; something from my gut - literally! I'm attempting an act of solidarity; com-passion = suffering with. So I'm going to attempt to feed myself on the equivalent of a food bank budget, which has been estimated by End Hunger Fast to be £14.30 per three days. I've turned that into a weekly figure of £33.37 and it's from this figure that I will attempt to buy my groceries for the next 40 days. Of course, I don't know that everyone gets 2 parcels a week but I do know that I couldn't live on £14.30 a week, so my budget assumes enough for 7 days.

Friends have wished me luck, told me I need a miracle to achieve this, cautioned me not to waste away and saluted my bravery. The thing is, I don't yet know whether I can achieve my goal but I do know that I have a safety net; I am not stuck in this position with no end in sight like the people who visit our food banks in the Wyre Forest. If I find I can't manage, I can cheat. So there has to be a system that makes me pay, should I end up having to cheat.

So the rules:

*I have allowed myself a few store cupboard ingredients; the type of things that are left after everything else has run out and which do not make up a balanced meal on their own;
Flour, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, stock cubes, spices and herbs (the dates on these will need checking before I go ahead and use them anyway). When these run out, they will have to be replenished from my weekly budget.

*Anything else that remains in my existing store cupboard and fridge is subject to a forfeit:
Every day that I use something that falls outside the list above, I will put an item in the food bank.

*When a pre-existing engagement means I am eating away from home, I will put an item in the food bank.

*If I am given food or supplies, I will put the equivalent in the food bank.

Other rules may be added as I discover the pitfalls over the next 40 days.

I'll be writing my blog and sharing my experiences, thoughts and some recipes throughout Lent, so do come back and visit this page and add your comments & recipes. Wish me luck, if you're someone who prays, say one for me. But more importantly, pray for those who have to rely on the food banks, Trussell Trust & their volunteers. Please think about signing the End Hunger Fast pledge, http://endhungerfast.co.uk/ and if you haven't donated to a food bank in a while, please spare what you can.

Thank you

Eva