With those particular statistics in mind, a Californian vegan couple decided to live an entire month with a $1 food allowance per day. Despite their claims that there was no agenda to their "experiment", articles were published, appearances were made on national television, donations collected for charity, and a website was established dedicated entirely to their project. Oh. And their book will be coming soon.
After taking a close look at this experiment, it appears as if there was an agenda, or atleast a background of ignorance and narrowmindedness.
Their ignorance and inability to think beyond their own way of thinking is visible in the important aspects of the topics they did not discuss in their blogs. They only vaguely acknowledged "that there are many different scenarios for what poverty looks like" and that their project "does not fit all of them".
Things to Consider
The most important thing to consider when contemplating the statistic "1 billion people live on $1 or less each day" is that not only does the cost of living vary across our country (including the costs of food), but that the value of the American dollar is not constant throughout the world. What costs $1 here, can cost less than a penny in another country. Here are a few examples of families eating for less than $1 per person per day from around the world:
Cairo, Egypt: One week's food expenditure for a family of 12: $68.53
Tingo, Ecuador: One week's food expenditure for a family of 9: $31.55
Shingkhey Village, Bhutan: One week's food expenditure for a family of 13: $5.03
Photos from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. For more, visit http://www.rustylime.com/show_article.php?id=1497
Now while the Californian couple lacked variety in their diet (and suffered negative health consequences due to that fact, as noted in their blog), the families pictured above do have variety in their diets.
Though their own garden had been destroyed by their dogs, many people have gardens of their own and share with family, friends, and neighbors, sometimes even as a form of trade. Even with the destruction of their low cost source of produce, the couple could have obtained more fruits and vegetables while shopping if they had only paid attention. A jar of more than 3 pounds of unsweetened applesauce costs roughly $2 and an entire pound of bananas usually averages fifty cents. Rather than wasting money on vegetable boullion, broth could have been made using water and the same vegetables that were used in the soup, saving money to put towards more nutritious foods.
One extremely important variance to the experiment versus real life is that most people are not vegan. In fact, people across the world (even in poverty) raise goats for milk, sheep for meat (and wool), chickens for meat and eggs, they hunt and trap animals of all sizes for food (and material for clothing), fish, and even forage for insects (a delicacy in some cultures even!). These are not only "free" renewable sources of food (aside from their own labor, of course), but sources of a large variety of complete essential nutrients. And yes, there are still Americans who do some of these things, as well.
When discussing the issue of food sources in America, it wasn't until more than two months after the completion of their experiment were the topics of food banks and foodstamps (which they did not use) brought up. Unless I missed it, soup kitchens and other meal programs (such as “Meals on Wheels”) were never mentioned. These are all great sources of "free", nutritious food - they aren't counted as any source of income (or expenditures).
The intellectual dishonesty of these two social justice teachers (another hint towards a possible agenda) is evident as they guilt over “the fact remains that billions of people will not have the option to eat what they would like” and pity those living in an inner city who “must travel a few miles in order to buy wholesome food” but fail to mention that of those billions of people, what they eat is often what’s desired being that it’s what they know. Or that people all over our country, even (and especially) in suburban and rural areas of mixed incomes, have to travel many miles for wholesome food.
After noting their choice to omit valid sources of nutrition from their diets and their inability to display the creativity that people possess when struggling to survive, as well as the “half education” they give to others on a topic their careers are based on, this couple’s supposed non-agenda becomes apparently blatant.
While the subject of poverty induced hunger is indeed a serious subject, the One Dollar Diet Project has done little more than insult the “poor” by painting the picture that all who live on limited monetary means are without creativity and intelligence, live a “deprived” life lacking in useful options, and that they should be pitied. The founders of this project successfully pushed their “non-agenda” of societal injustice without providing any real information that would help those in need or those looking to help those in need.
Check out the material at: http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/
If you would like to raise awareness for and help reduce poverty induced hunger, try something a little more useful than starving yourself and writing a book...
Seed Programs, Inc.
http://seedquest.org/spi/
“We work through other humanitarian organizations, church groups, service clubs and individual donors to provide quality seed to impoverished communities in developing countries enabling them to grow their own food. In addition to seed, SPI provides critical seed expertise and experience operating seed based self help programs.”
Meals On Wheels Association of America
http://www.mowaa.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
“So no senior goes hungry” ®
“MOWAA is a member organization, and its membership comprises of Senior Nutrition Programs in the United States. MOWAA member programs throughout the country provide nutritious meals and other nutrition services to men and women who are elderly, homebound, disabled, frail, or at risk. These services significantly improve the quality of life to the individuals they serve and postpone early institutionalization.”
Also, check your area for a program like this one (and if there isn’t one, contact your local Catholic Charities or similar organization to help get one started):
Operation Frontline
http://www.nhfoodbank.org/Pages/Programs/OFL%20Forms/Office%20Support.htm
“Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline (OFL) is a nutrition education program that fights hunger by teaching low-income families how to make healthy and budget-wise choices by partnering with local social service agencies. Operation Frontline’s cooking-based nutrition education classes are taught by professional chefs and nutritionists who volunteer to share their expertise with participants. Each class is built around a participatory cooking lesson designed to teach the basics of healthy eating, cooking, food safety, and food budgeting.”
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