Dining on 2$ a day

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It would be great to see our leaders see what it is to live on minimum wage. I would like to see ALL of them do it.

 

As for living on 2$ a day...even as someone who lives on rice/beans/vegetables...I find it hard to believe one could live on that kind of diet...unless they bought bulk poor quality vegetables or grains.

 

Even my simple meal of rice/vegetables and beans with a tiny bit of seasonings...I am sure that could cost 5$.

 

I find this hard to believe.

 

K

 

In a message dated 1/24/05 10:36:41 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, writes:

Message: 4 Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:10:57 -0500 morgaanaSubject: dining on $2 a dayThis Walk A Mile program should be a requirement for elected officials, don't you think? (http://walkamile.org/)Laura------------Dining on $2 a day? Vegetarian offers tipsBy Ted Halsted Kudos to Richmond Mayor Sally Hutton and 10 other Indiana mayors who participated with 15 state senators and representatives in a "Walk a Mile" program to sensitize themselves to what it is like to live on a meager fixed income. In their experiment each partnered with a person on fixed income and from mid-November through mid-December tried to live on the equivalent of that person's income. "I had to try to live on $5 a day for food," Hutton said. "I didn't do well." No wonder, if one tries to live on a typical American diet. There is an alternative. Be a vegetarian and you can have a healthy, well-balanced, tasty diet with an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables for just $2 a day. My wife, Marcy, and I have lived on such a diet for many years, not by economic necessity but by choice as an expression of our faith. The money we save we devote to world hunger projects, economic development in Third World countries and meeting human needs here in Richmond. The $2 per day is only for groceries. Detergent, cleanser, trash bags, etc. are in addition. We don't eat many meals out, but the cost of restaurant meals is extra, as is entertaining guests. Back in the 1970s when Francis Moore Lappe's ground-breaking diet book "Diet for a Small Planet" attracted many readers, Marcy and I decided that instead of supporting an input of 5 pounds of grain into a cow to produce 1 pound of beef, we would take our grain straight. Through reading and study we learned how to have a healthy diet with a proper balance of protein, carbohydrates, fat, minerals and vitamins. Here are four basic principles for living on $2 a day per person for food. An advantage of such a diet is improved health. You get the nutrition you need without the extra calories that add pounds to your weight. What will be considered a disadvantage by some is that preparing meals from scratch takes more time. From our standpoint, having everything taste fresher and better is worth the time investment. One of our joys from our $28 per week total for groceries for the two of us is donating an equal amount weekly to projects to eliminate world hunger. Marcy and I got a big push toward simpler living when as young adults in the early 1950s we were missionaries in India. Marcy as nursing superintendent of a mission hospital experienced distress in not being able to retain some employees who desperately needed their jobs in order to feed their families. I, as housefather of a boarding hostel for students, administered a food budget that back then amounted to just 7 cents per student per day. Living in India branded both of us for life. Another push toward simpler living came when our two daughters, while students at Earlham College, decided to become veggies and inspired Mother and Dad to emulate them. We want to live simply so that others can simply live. I realize that what I have written may sound self-congratulatory. I risk openness in the hope that some readers might be encouraged in their own endeavors to live responsibly on a planet in which there is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed. Ted Halsted is a resident of Richmondhttp://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050123/NEWS03/ 501230339/1003orhttp://tinyurl.com/4jjuh[This message contained attachments]