Live Below The Line

Our friends at Curative invited us along to the launch of the Live Below The Line NZ campaign this week, and until Tuesday night, we didn't really know much about it. The launch was held at Snapdragon, and the invitation said the chef would be feeding us all for $2.25 a head. Impossible, right? There were 150 people at the event, and you know what? We were all fed really well. 

That's a lot more than 1.4 billion people on this planet can say. That's how many people live below the extreme poverty line, and in New Zealand, that poverty line has been calculated at $2.25 per day. Imagine having to feed yourself for that amount each day, let alone having to pay for other basic needs like shelter, clothes and healthcare. $2.25 doesn't even cover bus fare for most people!

Food is a basic human right, and yet it's something that's so easily taken for granted. Today I'm embarrassed to say I spent $20 on dinner. That's just one meal. But the point of LBLN isn't to make you feel bad about your abundant life, it's to make you aware of just how little others have to live with. Only once we understand what true poverty feels like, can we properly help to fight it.

So the challenge has been set. Can you live on $2.25 a day? Live Below The Line is daring you to feed yourself for $2.25 for five days in September. Last year they raised $120,000 and that money went straight to partner anti-povery organisations like Oxfam, Tear Fund or World Vision. This year, they're aiming higher. 

Gather & Hunt is enlisting a LBLNZ team. We want an army of passionate people just like us who want to do their part in helping to fight extreme poverty.  We like our food and we love our coffee, but we're willing to put all that on hold for five days in September. We're turning this event into something special on the site, so during that week in September, we'll blog, post video and host special events to get us all through the week.

If you'd like to join our team, amazing. If you'd like to sponsor us, that's pretty amazing too. Either way, we'd love your support to live below the line.

So, are you in?