Living Below the Line - Day 4

Nicole here! So, I'm still alive!

The past few days have found me tired, lead-limbed, and low-energy. I find myself not wanting to lift heavy objects or bend over to retrieve things. I'm soooo tired. It may be the caffeine withdrawal more than the lack of nutrition.

 

This is me, except I don't get a delicious cup of cartoon coffee

This week has certainly made me think. As I near the end of my journey, I have come to a few conclusions:

1) Not eating is totally unhealthy. Not only do I empathize with those in poverty who are unable to access adequate amounts of healthy food, I also wince at the thought of those that do this to themselves as a result of an eating disorder. It is not a fun way to live. 

Anorexia is a serious disease. A few people this week asked me if they thought I would lose weight this week. I remember asking the same thing of d'Arcy from the Global Poverty Project. I realize I was wrong. Not eating actually causes your body to slow your metabolism in order to conserve energy. Starving your body of nutrients causes it to literally eat itself if you do it long enough. You're not losing weight; you're dying a slow, painful death. Harsh words I know, but remember, I am very hangry right now.

Please click here for some information on anorexia and here for some healthy eating tips. If you or someone you know is suffering from this disease, help is never too far away. Contact your Berkeley College Counseling office or click here to find a treatment center near you.

2) You don't need 5 days to feel the impact of this challenge. By day 2, I was utterly miserable. It's enough to scare you; the toll is so severe on your energy level, your emotions, and your interactions with others. Avoiding dates with friends because you can't drink or eat dinner with them, watching people around you eat when you can't, and having people offer you food that you can't accept all take their toll on you, emotionally as well as physically.

3) Not being able to accept donated food is kind of cruel. I do believe that you need to feel physical hunger to understand what this challenge is about - empathizing with those in extreme poverty. However, I think it's also important to know that, especially in NYC there are plenty of resources for those who can't afford to buy food. See my previous blog post for local organizations that are making a difference every single day! I also mentioned that so many people have offered to give me some of their food. I think that has been the most profound aspect of this challenge for me - the limitless generosity of the beautiful people in my life. 

4) You don't have to eat junk to eat cheaply. It's a common theme in our country that the poorest of our fellow Americans eat the worst food. Either due to access or lack of education about nutrition, people would rather go to McDonald's than the produce aisle. I've learned that for $1.69, I can buy a pound of dry beans, which when soaked and cooked, basically doubles in size. 

That's a lotta beans.

This really hit home for me. I'm always going for the convenient in-the-box dish or buying pre-made foods to save time. As I prepare to enter marriage this year, and hopefully motherhood in a few years, I am starting to learn how to cook affordable, nutritious meals for my family. I don't want them to go right for the instant, powdered food. It's not just about me anymore and I want my children-to-be to adopt healthy eating habits for a lifetime. 

My wholesome all-American Family if I was born a really long time ago.

In conclusion, I wish we could all empathize with our fellow human beings in crises without having to go through this arbitrary process of starving ourselves in an unhealthy way in order to prove a point. Being hungry is awful. We should all do something to help others to avoid this painful state of being, whether we can relate to it or not. 

That being said, whether what I am doing this week will help anyone else, besides yours truly, is completely up to you, dear reader. 

Click here now to go to the Berkeley Cares Live Below the Line Team Page and donate to UNICEF. Help fight world hunger today!

  Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and do not reflect the views of Berkeley College. 

Universities Fighting World Hunger

Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH) represents a campus best practice in international programming and sustainable human development.  It creates a learning environment where intellectual discovery and social responsibility converge in pursuit of a sustainable world – a world that protects our natural environment and enhances human health and well-being for present and future generations.

Vision
In partnership with the UN World Food Programme, Universities Fighting World Hunger will be the catalyst mobilizing universities across the nation and around the globe to make fighting hunger a core value of higher education institutions worldwide.

Mission
The mission is to create an academic hunger model that is suitable for replication or adaptation by universities in the US and abroad.

Goal
The founding goal is to develop and implement an action agenda for students and faculty that encompasses:

• hunger awareness and consciousness-raising
• fundraising
• advocacy
• academic initiatives

leading to a university community that is fully engaged in the effort to eliminate world hunger.

All of the above information is from their website. Click here to visit!

Follow them on Twitter!

Like them on Facebook!

Fighting Hunger in NYC

There are approximately 2.9 million New Yorkers who have trouble affording food. Here are some amazing organizations that are fighting hunger in our very own neighborhoods. Berkeley Cares has had the pleasure of volunteering with several of them. Read more to learn about how you can get involved!

This organization has rescued hundreds of millions of pounds of food and redistributed them to agencies that feed the hungry. To learn more visit their website.

 

A full-service agency for the elderly of New York City, this center provides Meals-on-Heels services as well as the Carter Burden Luncheon Program for seniors. Check out pictures of Berkeley students delivering meals in NYC. Click here to learn how you can volunteer.

Grace Church

Offering multiple locations with both food pantry and soup kitchen services, Grace Church does so much for New Yorkers in Need. Visit their website to learn more. 

Community Kitchen and Pantry of West Harlem (Food Bank of NYC)

Offers both soup kitchen and food pantry services. Click here and here for pics of NYC students volunteering! Visit their website to learn more.

This is just a small sampling of service organizations that feed the hungry in NYC. Nice to know! Like them on Facebook, volunteer with them, get to know what they are all about.

  

 Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and do not reflect the views of Berkeley College.

Living Below the Line - Day 3

Nicole here again!

So, I'm in the middle of my 5-day journey of living below the line. My h-anger has reached all new levels. I spent most of yesterday wishing I wasn't doing the challenge, thinking of ways to get out of it, and being mad at myself for doing it. I thought about food all day, and realized that I got hungrier a lot faster between meals than Day 1.

I found myself unable to focus on work. I thought about food from the second I woke up til the second I went to bed. 

My face when:

It makes me think of free breakfast and lunch programs at schools. Imagine being a child trying to focus in class with your stomach rumbling, or gazing with envy and hopelessness at your friends' overpriced Lunchables feast.

 

While I never managed to partake in the sodium-drenched amazingness of Lunchables myself, I did always have breakfast and lunch as a kid so I was very lucky. For those kids that aren't so lucky it's great that New York City offers free, healthy breakfast at school.To learn more about free and reduced meal programs in NYC schools, visit SchoolFood

I also realized that eating this cheaply means sacrificing nutrition to some degree. Subsisting on starches and beans and very little vegetables can make you cranky, bloated, and generally unhappy. One could say that eating a diet of fast food and barbecue (looks at floor and whistles) can also have the same effect, so it is great to take a step back and say "What the heck am I eating?" Even though deliberately not eating when you are hungry (to prove a point to society about our ridiculous over-consumption in the face of global poverty) can SEEM like you are participating in some seriously disordered eating, it does make you think; about food, mostly, but also about what we eat and why. Seriously, it's very deep.

This is some of what I've been eating. Beautiful isn't it? (It's this or more bean pictures people!)

Something that has helped me immensely with this challenge is the constant offers of those around me to share their food with me. The challenge does not allow donated food (unless you calculate the cost) so unfortunately I could not partake in all the deliciousness that abounds in my workplace. That being said, it brings me great comfort to know that I could never go hungry in the presence of my generous students and coworkers. 

Stay tuned for a post on some of the awesome services in NYC that feed our hungry fellow New Yorkers!

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and do not reflect the views of Berkeley College.

Living Below the Line - Day 1

Rahinat Emily Koti here - Student Government Association Secretary at Berkeley College's NYC campus.

Here's a picture of some of my living below the line shopping.....only have $1.43 left for the rest of the week......thank God my store had a banging sale!!

Don't forget to donate to our cause! 

My fundraising page

 Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and do not reflect the views of Berkeley College.

Living Below the Line - Day 2

Nicole here again!

I successfully survived Day 1 of the challenge. I think the dread of not being able to eat whatever, whenever I want is actually worse than the actual hunger I've experienced. I was able to get by on my three meals of oatmeal, ramen & peas, and beans for dinner. Drinking gallons of water helps to fight cravings and quell the colossal rumblings of my stomach.

Aren't they lovely?

Here are the rest of the week's beans soaking in some water, the old fashioned way:

Tired of bean pictures yet? WELCOME TO MY WORLD!

Emotionally, I'm borderline okay. My mood could be described as follows:

Also, the lack of caffeine, sugar, and rainbows in my diet has led to a nifty headache, as well as an overall feeling of lethargy and tiredness. I fell asleep early while watching TV last night, and then struggled to get out of bed this morning. I wish I could say...

...but unfortunately that is not the case. Feel free to come by The SAC and watch me eat my sad ramen lunch and cheer me up. And if you bring a burger anywhere near me I will be very upset with you. I will seriously reconsider our friendship!

Don't forget to donate to UNICEF. Do it for the children:

LBTL Berkeley Cares Team Donation Page 

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and do not reflect the views of Berkeley College.

Living Below the Line - Day 1

Greetings from Nicole Luthman, Coordinator for Student Development & Campus Life at Berkeley College's NYC Campus.

Today is my first day doing the Live Below the Line Challenge! And I must say, all I can think about is FOOD!

Why am I doing the challenge? The number one reason I do everything at my job: for my students. The number two reason? I'm a sucker. Just kidding!

Last month, d'Arcy Lunn, a powerful speaker from The Global Poverty Project came to Berkeley College's NYC campus to talk about his experience living below the line for 5 weeks. He's biked across many countries and documented his travels, which you can read about in detail on his blog, lunnyLBTL.wordpress.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @darcylunn.

d'Arcy opened our eyes to the heartbreaking issues of global poverty and to some solutions as well. He inspired several students to come to me and request that we do this challenge. My first thought "Do I have to do everything I ask my students to do?" But then, I realized I could hardly ask them to do something I couldn't do myself and that we would support each other through this challenge.

So here I am, thinking about food...

Live Below the Line Challenge: June 11-15

Berkeley Students and staff at the NYC Campus are participating in the "Live Below the Line Challenge" with The Global Poverty Project this week!

WHY?

Thousands of Americans chose to Live Below the Line this May for five days, in order to raise both awareness and critical funds, for the 1.4 billion people who live below the extreme poverty line every day.  Participants consumed less than $1.50 per day for all food and drink. This challenge is uniquely inclusive because it involves an activity that all people perform daily: eating and drinking.

Why $1.50? $1.50 is the U.S. equivalent of the extreme poverty line - a line that no one wants to fall below. The reason? To provide a unique perspective into the lives of 1.4 billion people living in the world's poorest countries who have no choice but to use $1.50 to cover all expenses. While completing the challenge, YOU, our friends and family can sponsor us in supporting the Global Poverty Projects initiative.

THE CHALLENGE

This challenge will take place for 5 days, from June 11-15, 2012. We will have to stretch $7.50 of food for the entire week, or $1.50 a day.

THE BLOG

Each day we will post to the Berkeley Cares Blog. Photos and videos of us cooking, buying food, eating food and our plate will be posted along with our thoughts and emotions as we go through this experience.

THE CAUSE
UNICEF has saved more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Working in more than 150 countries, UNICEF provides children with health care, clean water, nutrition, education, emergency relief, and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States. 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO UNICEF!

THE REWARD
In addition to raising funds for charity, at the end of the challenge we will present on our experience to the Berkeley College community. Berkeley College faculty, staff and your fellow students are all invited to attend. At this event, we will ask people to bring a potluck dish that costs $1.50 to make!

Live Below the Line Potluck

Thursday, June 21, 2012
5:30 - 6:30 PM

The Student Activity Center

 

Meet the Challengers...