Social Media Campaign Asks Us To Live Off Food Valued At $1.50 Per Day

Social media campaign Live Below the Line wants everyone to spend just $1.50 per day on food and drink for five days, the amount of money that 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty must use for food and drink every single day of their lives.

Live Below the Line runs from May 7 through May 11, however you can take part in the challenge at any time as the main purpose of the campaign is to spread awareness to the plight of billions.

The campaign doesn’t just suggest you live below the line, it also provides some foods you can try including oatmeal, coffee, rice and beans, all of which can fit into the $1.50 budget if cheap no-name products are purchased.

The social media campaign has also started using the #belowtheline hashtag on Twitter to generate discussions about this major food/drink poverty issue.

Michael Trainer, U.S. country director for the Global Poverty Project says of the campaign:

“We’re trying to make this incorporate online activism with an offline experience. The engineering of this is intended to be social — pooling your resources and sharing your experiences — you can afford more food if you join together with friends.”

Another part of the campaign encourages participants “Come Dine Below the Line” in which they invite friends and family over for a dinner party in which they serve a mean worth 50 cents per person and then share photos from their meals using the hashtag #dinebelowtheline.

Live Below the Line started four years ago in New Zealand and spread to the UK and now to the United States.

Here’s actor Hugh Jackman explaining the program:

[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/tf7RgJ-cAsY” height=”360? width=”640?]