Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a launch luncheon, held at Nella Cucina, for Live Below the Line Canada, a poverty awareness organization that started in Australia three years ago.  The program has spread to other countries in the world, including the UK, the United States and New Zealand.  This year, Canada joins in.  The program is challenging people to undergo a poverty challenge by living on only $1.75 Canadian for five days in April to experience what it’s like for nearly 1.5 billion people in the world.  This is the number of people who live in EXTREME POVERTY, according to the World Bank.  At the launch, chef John Placko of the Modern Culinary Academy and John Placko Culinary Consulting, created three meals – a breakfast, lunch and dinner – all for under $1.75 Canadian per person in TOTAL.

The three meals (L-R: dinner, lunch and breakfast)

The meals were creative and relatively healthy.  For breakfast, we had oatmeal with grated apple and yoghurt ($0.55 per person), lunch was a pea soup ($0.64) and dinner was made with vegetables and instant noodles.  They were also easy to make, and recipes were posted on a TV screen in the demonstration kitchen.

Chef John Placko grates apples for the oatmeal

One thing I have to criticize about this campaign is despite spending roughly the same amount of money per person that one might have in the emerging world, middle class Canadians still have access to refrigerators, stoves, clean, running water and  most of all, supermarkets.  While we have to shop on a budget, there is definitely more choice.  In addition, the use of fresh vegetables, especially for dinner, doesn’t take into account the so-called “food deserts” in many urban areas, including Toronto.  It would have been more interesting had Chef Placko created the meal using frozen and canned goods.

Ingredients to create the dinner

The Live Below the Line challenge will be held between April 29 and May 3, 2013.  If you’re up to it, you can pledge on their website.