Thursday, October 18, 2012

Children and Poverty

BC has the highest percentage of child poverty in the nation. This is something that should not be! But it is.

We are not sticking to the rules for the challenge in regard to the child in our household. It is good for him to experience limits in terms of choice. Every morning he asks, "how many more days do we have to have plain oatmeal for breakfast?" And then groans no matter the response. One more day is too many in his mind. But I am not worried about that. I am worried about the parents who have to feed their children on this amount of money and I honestly do not know how they can do it. The amount of bread and peanut butter we could afford this week ran out today, on day 3 and we don't even have to feed him lunch because he gets it at school. There is only enough fruit for one serving every other day and 3 carrots, 3 potatoes and a spaghetti squash are all the veggies we could do and we aren't eating meat or eggs. That again is for 4 people.

More than anything else I am struck by the plight of children and their parents when it comes to having to make do on this amount if money. This must be set right!


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Welfare Food Challenge

Many in our church are on social assistance. Almost all live at or below the poverty line. Personally I (Jodi) felt like taking the challenge this week to live on a food budget if $27/person would not be an especially big deal. We live on close to this amount most weeks. However I am starting to see things very differently. Today is day 3 of the challenge. Here are some of the "rules" that are making this pretty tough.

You cannot use anything you already have on hand. This includes spices or oil for coating a pan, a teaspoon of sugar or coffee unless it comes out of your whole budget. Since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, no coffee.

There are 4 of us in our household. Three adults and one child. We are cheating all over the place for the kid. Otherwise this is nearly impossible to do healthfully. More on that later.


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