"poverty" news and stories

Most of the food holidays we talk about here are trivial and fun. But this one actually has some meaning behind it.

It's World Food Day, the annual day held to promote awareness of hunger and poverty around the globe. The theme this year is "The Right To Food - Make It Happen!" The World Food Day USA site has more information on the day, including the various events being held to mark the day. There will also be a teleconference broadcast today at noon.

More links: The International Alliance Against Hunger, The UN World Food Programme, and World Food Day Canada.

Cruising through Epicurious the other day, I came across a post in the editor's blog, Epi-log. She pointed to a thread in Epicurious' forum about a woman doing an "experiment" in hunger, to see what it would be like to live at what the American government defines as "poverty level." The woman did a little bit of research and says, "From what I have read in governmental statistics, poverty for a household of two is an annual income of $13,000, or $250 a week." After housing, food is the second highest expense, and based on the statistics, she is going to try to live on $62 a week for food for two people.

It made me think. As a single person, that would mean I would be living on $31 a week for food. I was sort of embarrassed to say that while I could easily spend that on a croissant and coffee for a week, a family of two is living on that for three meals a day, seven days a week. I've blown more than that on one meal of sushi before. In fact, I think I spend $31 each time I go to the grocery store, which is about every other day.

I thought about how I would do with $31 a week. It made me really think about things I take for granted, like wine, cheese, and desserts. Perhaps I'd go back to eating a lot more Korena food, which is heavily based on grains and vegetables, which are not as expensive as fish and meats.

How about you? How much do you spend on groceries a week? Would you be able to make do if you were cut back to $62 for two people?