Days 6-7: World hunger is easily solvable, if...

If you've stumbled upon this entry and are not sure what's going on here, these are the links to get you caught up:

Day 1 Explainer: Why?
List of ingredients and breakdown of $30 cost

When you intentionally choose hunger, something starts to change within you.

And I don't mean physically.

There's a inexpressible awareness that begins to emerge.

There's a true sense of solidarity you begin to feel with those facing extreme poverty and hunger.

While it's not the same as their literal struggle of course, it does provide a sense of it, and it's a palpable one.

And the point arises, ok but not everyone can drop their routines and live off of $30 of food for 30 days. 

And my point is, yes you're right, but what if we all decided to live maybe just 10-20% more simply?

What if we all did the occasional 30 days on $90 of food?

It's part of the reason I try to show you the results of my meals.

I want us all, myself included, to have the awareness of what can still be done on so little. 

And what if we took the financial savings of that slight simplification and gave it to organizations aiming to lift up the poor through a sustainable means?

Then we would be much closer to solving world hunger. 

World hunger. Such a old school buzz phrase, I know. But it's real.

Some stats I found online are pretty shocking:

Every day 25,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, die from hunger and hunger-related causes. 

That’s three times the death toll of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined!

Some 854 million people worldwide are estimated to be undernourished, and inflation may drive another 100 million into poverty and hunger by the end of this year.

Nearly 1 out of every 10 people on earth are living on less than $2.15 a day. Presumably more than half their monthly budget would be for non-food expenses such as housing. 

But the beautiful thing is, we actually can do something about it, for very little sacrifice of our own, when we work together. 

Case in point, we already have 8 hearts filled on our journey to finding 25 people to take a small step of action.

Which in turn, when all these 25 "hearts" are added up, will become $780/month in impact, and close to $10k per year!

Then further doubled by the She Has Hope farmland and small biz projects, we're talking about over $20,000 of charitable impact... from just 25 people.

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Ready to jump in and be a part of this movement?

Just click the heart-chart and on the next screen enter the amount of the "heart" you want to sponsor monthly, choose a day of the month you want it to draft, and you're in!

One of my favorite times of the year is every December when our Myanmar team harvests their rice crop.

It's a visual of your donation being multiplied to result in nearly 5 tons of rice to feed 100+ children being provided complete residential care and education in our programs.

Here's a photo from last month's harvest with one of our smiling farmers!

For those following along, here's a look at what I was able to cook up with $1/day the past two days...

 See you again in 48 hours..... thanks for your support and encouragement!

Days 4-5: Small steps, over time, together = change

If you've stumbled upon this entry and are not sure what's going on here, these are the links to get you caught up:

Day 1 Explainer: Why?
List of ingredients and breakdown of $30 cost

But to recap, the whole idea here is twofold:

1) Why I do the challenge for me:

• It helps me reset my concept of food
• It increases my sense of gratitude for the abundance I enjoy on a usual daily basis
• It helps me focus my intentions outside of my self

2) Why I do the challenge for others:

• To better empathize with the plight of, and stand in solidarity with, those who never see a "day 31" and are struggling with the effects of inflation and unfair wages
  
• To help you, the reader, pause and reflect on ways you can simplify so the vulnerable can be lifted up
• To inspire a charitable result by way of reminding us that our small sacrifices, when added together and compounded, can make a life-changing and lasting difference for those who need our help

My charitable goal:

The idea here is to turn my $30 into seeds that, with your help, grow into something much bigger than what I can buy at the grocery store.

How we will do this:

I'm seeking 25 generous souls to pledge a monthly donation of these amounts on the chart below.

When combined, you’ll be turning my $30 into $780/mo and then *12 = almost $10k/year.

When stretched by our farmlands, it will turn into $20k of impact annually for She Has Hope programs! 

[click here to read the She Has Hope annual impact report]

Over 5 years, that’s over $100,000 of impact.

From just 25 people!

Want to be one of the 25?

Just tap on the chart, then on the next screen, enter the amount you'd like to sponsor monthly, and then choose a day of the month you'd like your recurring donation to charge.

Happy to show you that we have 4 of the hearts filled! 21 to go!

 

Tonight I want to dedicate days 4 & 5 of the challenge to the girls in our She Has Hope India programs. 

Here's a look at your generosity being multiplied: our team there grows many of the vegetables that keep these and other girls like them well nourished. This is one less cost that our local team has to incur, thereby stretching your charitable giving even further. 

On to my 6 meals since my last blog post... let's take a look at what I was able to cook up for $1/day...

 

Improvised banana rice pudding with cinnamon

 

Thanks for following along! More to come...

Days 2-3: First Heart Filled!

I've just finished meal number 9 of 90 and it's coming along fairly well so far!

As I've chronicled in challenges past, there is the issue of hunger, it's definitely real when dealing with limited calorie intake. But there are ways to fill your belly. A serious drawback, however, is the monotony that starts to set in from such limited ingredients (link).

You also don't realize the nutritional needs the brain requires to maintain focus. I'm no nutritionist, so I can't explain what I'm lacking, but I have noticed a general brain fog setting in around day 3. 

But it's all worth it for the awareness and support I'm able to raise, not to mention the previous benefits of my own personal reset I've previously explained (link).

I'm very happy to share that we have our first heart filled on this quest to bring us together to make a true and lasting difference in our world!

Someone has stepped forward to sponsor the $16/mo heart on our heart-chart here!

Their small sacrifice of ~$0.50/day means $16/mo for our She Has Hope programs.

These programs care for orphan girls, trafficking survivors, and other at-risk girls through education, safe residential care, and... nutrition! 

This is one of my photos from our India boarding school.

 

Want to jump into the beauty of multiplication? Just tap on the chart and then on the next screen, enter the amount you'd like to sponsor monthly, and then by tomorrow I will fill in the heart(s) to show that it has (they have) been sponsored! 

The miraculous wonder of this challenge is how we can, together, turn my meager $30 into something much larger and with far reaching implications!

Tonight I want to expand on that thought further. 

Last night I explained:

Together we're stronger: $16 + $17 + $18 + $19 + $20 + $21 + $22 + $23 + $24 + $25 + $26 + $27 + $28 + $29 + $30 + $31 + $32 + $33 + $34 + $35 + $36 + $37 + $38 + $39 + $40 = $780/month = $9,360/year * 5 years = $46,800

The magic is in the simple math: if we fill in all these hearts during this 30 days, that will represent $780 in monthly, recurring support for orphans and trafficking survivors, every single month, or $9,360 annually!

It's the power of the sum of consecutive integers plus the power of recurring or incremental investment into solving the problems of extreme poverty among society's most vulnerable.

Because our programs are supported by farmland and gardening projects, your consistent recurring support will be multiplied even further!

And with our monthly donors giving for at least 5 years on average, the math then gets multiplied out to $46,800 we could invest into these programs together if all the hearts get filled!

And this is how, together, we turn $30 into $46,800! 

But tonight I want to help you get a glimpse of how this is multiplied even further in our She Has Hope programs.

Let's take our Uganda programs as an example. 

In the first three quarters of 2023, our Uganda team multiplied donor funds by a factor of 2.15. 

 

This is achieved through our Uganda farmland and gardening initiatives, along with other small-scale business efforts. Thankfully, we're able to grow most of the food our students and staff consume, and this is how we stretch donor dollars so far.

So taking the example above, assuming our averages hold, if the 5-year result of the heart chart being filled equals $46,800, and that is then invested into our Uganda programs, it would become $100,620 of charitable impact!

Yes, you read that right: 

My $30 + you + 24 others filling the above hearts 

= $100,620 over five years

And this is the beauty of taking small, consistent steps as a powerful force for change when we band together and have faith that we can make a difference.

It's made all the difference for girls like these at our Uganda girls home. 

 

Because of the generosity of She Has Hope donors, these girls and many others like them are able to enjoy a safe place to live in a loving home environment, with access to three square meals a day and an accredited education at our school next door.

On to my six meals since the first blog post, let's see what I cooked up with $1/day ...

I managed to improve my "tortilla" technique, and an Italian friend pointed out that it's actually much more like a piadina bread since I don't have any lard or shortening (a piadina is much more dry than a tortilla).

 

 Thanks for following along. Next update in ~48 hours!

Day 1: Improvisation due to Inflation

Day 1 down, 29 to go! This is my 7th time to do this challenge and while it is certainly a challenge, I enjoy doing it. It's been almost five years since I did it last in March of 2019. And it has been almost 15 years since I did my first challenge!

For those of you who haven't followed my previous challenges, the idea is quite simple: I buy $30 worth of groceries and improvise to make it stretch over 90 meals in 30 days, in an effort to better empathize with, and advocate for, those struggling with extreme poverty— millions who often live off of a similar food budget.

My son Noah, a finance major / philosophy minor often engaged in activist efforts himself, urged me to keep the challenge at $30 despite inflation, saying it would be a more interesting challenge. Haha. He’s right but an extra $10 sure would have come in clutch. 

I was happy to find a lot of deals at the mega Fiesta mart near NRG Stadium here in Houston.

I haven't yet calculated exactly how much less food I'm getting on this challenge due to inflation, but my shopping list is up, you can check it out here to see what I managed to secure. 

I would guess I'm getting about 20% less food this time due to inflation, however it's hard to say, as I'm getting more rice this time. More on that in the days ahead.

 

Why do I do this?

1️⃣ It’s a great way to be more intentional and aware of what you’re eating, while making you very aware of all that we take for granted. It’s a type of fast, you could say, with all the related health and spiritual benefits of a fast, just with a twist. Ok, health benefits debatable in this case, but I’ll let you be the judge.

2️⃣ To raise awareness of extreme poverty and its effects, especially in light of inflation and unfair wages, and the choices this forces on those facing poverty to eat low quality food.

3️⃣ To inspire us to realize how our consumption makes a difference in our spending while others go without. How we can consume less and then take the savings and invest in farmland projects that empower those struggling with extreme poverty. 

 

Why not just adjust for inflation and give yourself a raise?

Fair question, but as my son suggested, there are so many who are not getting fair wages, many who do not get raises in symmetry with inflation, so I will use this challenge to document what choices not getting a raise forces me to make.  

 

As for point 3... here's how we're going to achieve this together. It's all about the beauty of incremental multiplication and teamwork to see small, consistent efforts turn into monumental ones over time.

 

My charitable goal is to find monthly recurring donors to help sustain the needs of our work beyond the 30 days of this challenge.

I do this because for these I am advocating for, the challenge goes on well after day 30, and because I know there's a sustainable way we can be a part of the solution.

I'm going to use a small "heart-chart" to visually demonstrate our progress toward my goal of finding 25 new monthly sustainers.

 

 

Just tap on the chart and then on the next screen, enter the amount you'd like to sponsor monthly, and then by tomorrow I will fill in the heart(s) to show that it has (they have) been sponsored! 

 

Together we're stronger: $16 + $17 + $18 + $19 + $20 + $21 + $22 + $23 + $24 + $25 + $26 + $27 + $28 + $29 + $30 + $31 + $32 + $33 + $34 + $35 + $36 + $37 + $38 + $39 + $40 = $780/month = $9,360/year * 5 years = $46,800

The magic is in the simple math: if we fill in all these hearts during this 30 days, that will represent $780 in monthly, recurring support for orphans and trafficking survivors, every single month, or $9,360 annually!

 

It's the power of the sum of consecutive integers plus the power of recurring or incremental investment into solving the problems of extreme poverty among society's most vulnerable.

Because our programs are supported by farmland and gardening projects, your consistent recurring support will be multiplied even further!

And with our monthly donors giving for at least 5 years on average, the math then gets multiplied out to $46,800 we could invest into these programs together if all the hearts get filled!

 

And this is how, together, we turn $30 into $46,800!  

 

In my next post I'll review how the multiplication is coming along from when we did this in March of 2019, almost five years ago! 

 

PLOT TWIST:

 

Let's make this a little more interesting. To simulate the impact of charity on those struggling with poverty, every new monthly donor who fills in a heart on the heart-chart will unlock 1/25th of the oatmeal and flour that I had to set aside due to the $1.57 overage I had to spend to get those in bulk. 

 

Your charitable act will therefore help me gain back a little of what inflation took away from me.

Now onto what I'm sure you're curious to see... the first three meals...

 

Meal 1 of 90: Savory oatmeal with fried egg.

 

Meal 2 of 90: Bean and egg tacos with my attempt at homemade tortillas.

Now for some behind the scenes, including my first tortilla making fiasco that turned out to more like naan. Lol.

I make pinto bean batches in the crock pot for about a 5 days' supply. 

Bananas are sliced and frozen to last for 30 days.

More tomorrow... thank you for following along!