Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Eating on $1 a Day?

Two social justice teachers experimented to see if they could eat on $1 (or less) per day. They had some rules:

1. All food consumed each day must total $1 each.
2. They could not accept free food or “donated” food unless it was available for everyone in their area. (i.e. foraging, samples in stores, dumpster diving)
3. Any food they planted, they paid for.
4. They did their best to cook a variety of meals; ramen noodles could only be prepared if there was no other way to stay under one dollar. (Sorry, Ms. FrugalMeals!)
5. If they decided to have guests over for dinner, they had to eat from their share; meaning they don’t get to eat their own dollar’s worth of food.

This is similar (in some ways) to the Morgan Spurlock "Super Size Me" experiment.

Except I don't think these people got fat.

(NOTE: Frugal Eating does not recommend or condone trying this at home.)

4 comments:

  1. I'm not quite understanding how #5 works... Does that mean they don't eat when they have guests over? Meaning it's not going to be potluck? Why can't they just make it potluck?

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  2. I guess they couldn't make it a potluck because there is a chance that their own shares that they eat will cost above $1.

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  3. I like the ONE DOLLAR DIET PROJECT's Food Cost Index. The comments there were very interesting, particularly the one about how poor people really can't buy something in bulk to bring their per-meal price down. I admire their effort and the statement they're making, and everyone can learn from them. But they aren't getting enough of their nutritional needs.

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