Live Below the Line

Feeding myself on $2 a day for five days to raise funds for education projects in the Asia-Pacific.

By Thomas Feng

June 29^th, 2015

As of a fortnight ago, I have emerged from within my exam cocoon. There have been so many thoughts and experiences itching to be put into writing which haven’t been possible due to revision for my Microeconomics and Econometrics exams. So I’m excited to be again exerting effort into writing for fun so watch this space for more frequent updates over the next few weeks.

8 weeks ago I partook in Live Below The Line, a campaign run by young Australians aged 16-26 from Oaktree to raise awareness about extreme poverty and funds for education projects in the Asia-Pacific. Participants feed themselves on $2 a day for five days to gain a small insight into the some of the sacrifices and choices people in extreme poverty make everyday. This is a reflection of my LBL experience in 2015 and if you haven’t yet donated to the cause, please do so here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com.au/me/thomas_feng

Fundraising ends tomorrow (June 30th).

pre-LBL celebrations

On the Saturday prior to the beginning of LBL, my cousin had her wedding. Having only previously attended a number of wedding receptions, it was a joyful new experience to attend a wedding ceremony for the first time: I saw many unknown happy faces as my cousin walked down the aisle; I wondered how far they had travelled and how close each of those people were to her; whether they had known her from a young age; if they had ever conversed closely over the dinner table or over a pot of jasmine tea. The vows were given and the marriage signed off and the Master of Ceremonies pronounced them husband and wife inside the Old Treasury Building.

Four hours between the ceremony and reception meant a couple of things: sneaking in some study at uni before sneaking in a catchup at the Thousand Pound Bend (see right photo). Hello delicious saganaki burger & many jugs of beer. After a couple of shots of vodka at Lauren’s whilst flicking through Mr Wilkinson’s Simply Dressed Salads I experienced a fine moment in my existence as a sentient being: I turned up drunk to my cousin’s wedding reception. With a cheeky nap in the corner to break down some of the alcohol and the witnessing of my newlyweds’ first dance, I sobered with a vengeance and proceeded to boogie the night away to the surprise of all of my extended relatives. They know my name, not my story.

Seeing me boogie my socks off contagiously brought my parents onto the dance-floor. This was the first time I’d ever seen them dance properly and it was something I’ll remember fondly.

the LBL shopping haul

The next day I ventured with Imogen to the Queen Victoria Markets as we spent a whole afternoon walking to and fro various stores sussing out the best deals. There was one Asian grocer which we entered three times over the space of two hours. Each time we grabbed a 500g plastic bag filled with rice from the shelf, contemplated the legitimacy of the business operation of separating bigger bags of rice into smaller bags for profit, decided that it wasn’t the best deal possible and proceeded to exit the store.

Over the four hours we shopped, I spent $8.20 snagging the following items: 7 apples for $1, 12 potatoes and a tomato for $1, 4 onions for $0.90, 2 odd carrots for $0.50, a slightly bruised capsicum for $0.20, 3 bunches of bokchoy for $0.60, 6 cloves of garlic for $0.50, 5 bean mix from ALDI for $0.75, 500g of Jasmine Rice from ALDI for $1.15 (1 kg shared between two), 350g of Pancake Mix from Coles for $1.75 (10 pancakes made!) and 3 stock cubes. This was to feed me 13 meals over 5 days; 2 other meals were from events I was hosting during the 5 days.

day 1: questioning from students

“Are you on a diet?”

Mondays are relatively mundane for me. I work as a chess coach at a school during their lunchtimes and so that day I had many 8 year olds ask me why there was so little lunch for me. I didn’t know whether it was my place to educate them about the social inequalities of the world and how to do it in an acceptable manner. I ended up just telling them that I was feeding myself on $2 a day for 5 days to raise money to help people who weren’t as lucky as us. I think they got the message.

After work, I headed into uni for my usual Microeconomics lecture and dinner with the Environment Collective. To ensure I wasn’t cheating, I with some help of my fellow Oaktree Club members, cooked an LBL-style dinner of “Mujadarra” or “dirty rice” for 24 people. We spent $12 for the entire meal ($0.50 per person), and surprised many people with the deliciousness of the food. We raised an additional $50 to the campaign and had many interactions with those that attended about the cause. The lack of nutrients coming from only eating rice, onions, lentils and stock for a meal would become more obvious throughout the week.

day 2: a hungry professional

I really don’t remember much from this day except that at 9am I had the most important job interview of my life to date for a full-time graduate position. I had to wake up at an ungodly hour, dress in professional attire in order to look schmick, and subsequently, burnt my breakfast pancake before leaving the house at 7.15am. I also sent an e-mail to a random person thinking it was text message. Halp.

Day 3: econometrics is the worst

Hump day coincided with my 2500 word Econometrics report on the effects of plain packaging policy on cigarette consumption and sales in Australia being due. This was a definite cataclysm for my brain. For most people it’s unlikely that they’d be able to understand what econometrics is, let alone justify how the Probit model fits in with and explains the deviations of cigarette consumption and how this justifies or rejects your initial hypothesis whilst your thoughts rest with all the foods you can’t eat.

Thankfully, the report was handed in by 3pm (I couldn’t care much about the quality of it) and this meant that my attention could turn to cooking up a chapati and chickpea salad storm with Letitia, Jeremy, Sinead and Megan from the Oaktree Club for our “Lunch Below the Line” the next day.

day 4: decadence day

The photo below was my breakfast on Day 4. 3 of my 10 pancakes (to that point I had consumed 4 over 3 days), with a stewed quarter of an apple. It was so delicious and for that morning, I believed that I had overcome the hunger hump and that I would feed myself decently for the last couple of days due to my cautious rationing days 1-3.

At Lunch Below the Line, we fed over 40 people and raised $110 in wet and wild conditions. It was a busy day filled with optimism and my body distracted itself from the lack of nutrients and flavour of the few days prior.

day 5: i hate pancakes & everything

The malnutrition caught up. I ate three pancakes again that morning and I will not be eating any more pancakes for a long time because my body was sick of them. No matter how much mujadarra, soup, fried rice or pancakes I fed myself: I was tired, upset and unable to function productively as a citizen of society. The struggle was very real.

However, I made a plea that day to my network of friends and family about my experiences and over the course of 10 hours, they had increased my donations from $650 to $1160. This raised my spirits immensely and at 12am, I celebrated with a beer and some garlic bread to mark the end of my third year participating in Live Below the Line.

the main takeaways

1. This was not a realistic experience of poverty: I did not have to factor in other living costs such as transport, electricity, gas and water into my $2 a day budget out of pragmatism. In reality, whole families try their best to have access to an education, employment, sanitation, healthcare, food on such a small wage; a meagre amount which simply isn’t enough to provide these things I take for granted. I only had to feed myself for 5 days and I was able to extensively plan out my meals.

2. Doing it in a group really helps. Sharing some ingredients with Imogen meant we were able to buy rice, garlic and trade vegetables to save some money. This gave me the option of having a good breakfast for LBL in the form of pancakes for the first time. It also makes grocery shopping much more fun.

3. Under the guise of my privileged existence, this was difficult. The constant hunger and malnutrition I experienced despite it being my third year, was a small indication of how hard some people struggle to get through on a daily basis. If I was forced to give up my bed, this would be accentuated at an even greater level.

4. Fundraising is important. It’s an important platform for raising awareness but more importantly it’s a means for organisations to transform awareness into tangible action. Personally, it also raises my spirits when I’m feeling low over the five days.

5. Poverty is a vicious cycle people are born into and it’s unfair that our lives in so many aspects are determined from the minute we’re born by the place we’re born. That’s why, despite the experience being difficult: my stomach ached from malnutrition and my brain faltered under assessments, Live Below the Line was worth my time and fueled the fire of my passion for ending extreme poverty. Every year I will continue to Live Below the Line so others can rise above it.

Please support and donate to this incredible cause run by some of the most determined, brave, incredible young Australians: https://www.livebelowtheline.com.au/me/thomas_feng