Sarah Croft from Peterborough lived for £1 a day to raise awareness about poverty with the Live Below The Line project.
Sarah swapped a packed lunch for a slice of bread to try and understand what it is like to be in the shoes of 1.4 billion people a year have a daily food budget of less than £1.Between April 30 and May 4 she had only £1 a day to spend on food and drink.
22 year old Sarah is doing a paid internship with Christian Aid in Peterborough and had the same three ‘meals’ every day for the 5 days.
For breakfast she had a boiled egg with plain toast, lunch was one slice of bread and her dinner was the cheapest value pasta from the supermarket.
Sarah said: “It was a lot harder than I thought it would be and it is surprising how quickly it impacts you.
“I have a sweet tooth and I’m used to having a few snacks through the day, so I became really sleepy and quite grumpy during the week.
“It also affected my concentration and made me feel light-headed.
“It made me really think about how not getting the right amount of nutrition makes you feel.
“It becomes the only thing on your mind and that explains why people who live in poverty don’t think about things like their rights. Hunger takes over your mind.”
Sarah was inspired to take part in the project after visiting Sierra Leone as part of her internship.
Regional manager Christian Aid for the East of England, Mandy Loveder , said: “She wanted to raise some money and came to us with this idea. We have had a previous intern doing the same thing last year, so I think that inspired Sarah. If you saw what she ate every day it would frighten you. The trouble she had was a lack of sugar and I think that made her very tired.
“But it’s important to raise awareness about what’s going on around the world and I think Sarah has helped to do that.”
The Live Below The Line campaign has raised £335,231 in total.
To learn more about the project, visit www.livebelowtheline.com/uk