Could you live on a food bank diet?

The Stop Community Food Centre thinks people should know how hard it is to live on welfare and in poverty. Many have to rely on food banks to survive. As part of its "Do the Math" campaign to demonstrate that social assistance rates just doesn't provide enough to live a healthy, dignified life, they convinced a number of prominent people, who are used to eating well, to survive for a week on a typical food bank diet. Among those trying were Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and the Shock Doctrine, Damian Abraham (Pink Eyes) of the punk band F**ked Up, Wayne Roberts (sustainable food expert and author) and Michael MacMillan, former CEO of Alliance Atlantis. Michael explained why he was doing this:

I'm doing this because I love to cook and eat and share food with others. It is a huge source of personal pleasure. And I realize how fortunate I am to be able to eat what I want when I want.

Reading the blog that participants contributed to, the most surprising thing is the very common emotional changes; most became cranky,irritable and unpleasant. Michael wrote "I'm grouchy. I'm sluggish. And I'm not thinking straight. My friends might say that's normal but I'm not on my game."

Actor Anand Rajaram wrote "I'm feeling nauseated and I have heart burn." He was so exhausted he fell down the stairs. He continued "Food and health are so obviously connected it should be criminal to deny someone the most basic rights of adequate fresh healthy food not loaded with sugar and starch and fillers like wheat and corn and soy that have led to so many allergies."

Local hero and City Councillor Joe Mihevc reported on Day 4: "My headache was the worst yet today, and by 5:00 I could hardly think anymore."

In the end, many fell off the wagon, and just couldn't stretch the food out to a week. Michael MacMillan told the Globe and Mail:

At the beginning, I thought this would be a neat game, and that because I'm a good cook I could stretch this stuff out and I could do well with it. My temper's getting shorter and I'm just now annoyed. That's my overall emotional state, and I hadn't imagined that. It's the cumulative impact. To put the time into making a meal that tastes so bland, and has not enough calories, is very different than what I'd normally put into a meal, with nice fresh fruits and vegetables.

I think that food is a human right. Water and air and food are essentials. They're not nice-haves: they're must-haves. If you don't have each of those three, you die.

If we think it's important to look after the most vulnerable in our society, and those who are down on their luck, we ought to give them enough. The purpose of welfare is not to hurt somebody, or kick them when they're down. It's to help them in order to get off welfare, and back into more productive, social, healthy and useful lives.

Bravo to Michael and everyone else who tried to do this.