Sarah Campbell: Plan, plan, plan

The Options Committee of Making Kenora HOME has proposed the second annual poverty challenge, A Walk in Other’s Shoes. Community members have been asked to spend seven days facing some of the challenges caused by poverty. The event takes place during the second week of February, which is the annual Week of Action Against Poverty.

Participants will live off $52.00 for the entire seven days. This includes all food and drink, entertainment, some personal supplies and transportation costs. Each participant will be given a daily challenge card that will reveal an additional challenge; they must complete the challenge before the day’s end.

An opening event is scheduled to be held at City of Kenora Council Chambers at 12:00 pm on Wed. February 8th. The closing event will be held at the Kenora Recreation Centre Rotary Room at 12:00 pm on Thursday February 16th. Both are open to the public.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Plan, plan, plan

OK, I knew this was going to be a challenge, but didn't realize just how tight it was going to be. I remember eating relatively inexpensively when I was in university, so I thought that I would have a somewhat easier time with the budgeting... yeah right! In order to budget you actually need a reasonable amount of money! Last night when I got back to Dryden from an intensive 4 day trip up north, I went home to plan my meals for the next week. I was exhausted from the trip and really hungry. I had to hurry to come up with a meal plan so that I could go out and pick up groceries.

The plan: I knew I'd probably have to rely on eating sandwiches for my lunches and planned on eating yogurt, toast and some fruit for breakfast. Suppers were definitely the most difficult part to plan for... so I decided to make a Mexican Casserole and eat it for supper for 5 days and make a meatloaf and salad for the other two.

I spent a considerable amount of time looking at online flyers for grocery stores and trying to cost out a lot of ingredients. Not everything that I needed to eat for the week was on sale, and so I would have to wait until I got to the grocery store before I could price out the remaining ingredients.

I recognize that without having access to a vehicle, a person living on social assistance would not have the luxury of shopping around from grocery store to grocery store in search of the best prices. But there was absolutely no other way that I could afford to eat relatively nutritious food otherwise.

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Occupation: Member of Provincial Parliament

I’m 29 years old, married with six cats that share our home. I’m a proud northerner and I have a great passion for our way of life, including hunting and fishing. My job gives me the opportunity to work with people from across our region, to hear their stories, understand the challenges they face and to help improve life in our area.

Food Weakness: Fast food when I’m traveling between communities.

Average Cost of Weakness: $50 per week.

What do you anticipate being the most difficult in the challenge?
The biggest challenge is going to be staying under budget. I will be traveling in the far north during a large portion of the challenge, where basic necessities are significantly more expensive. This includes $16 for 4L of milk, or $40 for a 10 kg bag of flour.

Why did you decide to take the challenge?
I wanted to take part in this challenge because I think it does a great deal to raise awareness of the difficulty individuals and families with low incomes have with keeping food on the table, in particular healthy food. While the biggest challenge will be staying within the budget, this challenge gives me an important opportunity to raise awareness of the inadequate basic needs amount for people living everywhere-- whether you’re living in a municipality like Kenora, Dryden, Sioux Lookout, Ignace or Machin, or in a First Nation community in the Far North such as Deer Lake, Sachigo or Fort Severn-- and the physical and emotional health challenges it creates. Food is such an essential part of our society-- access to it is something we all take for granted, yet when we don’t have access to nutritious food it makes it difficult to concentrate or have the energy to perform basic tasks and participate in employment opportunities.