This week I am taking the Do the Math Challenge – trying to make a 3 day supply from a food bank last all week. It’s part of the Put Food in the Budget Campaign. Myself, along with 100 other youth in Toronto are taking the Challenge this week. Here are my reflections on Day 2 of the diet.

I don’t know about you, but food plays a central role in my life. Yes, I eat it to survive, but what about it’s role in helping me thrive?

The energy food gives me powers me through the day; breakfast gets me out of bed in the morning, and ample meals throughout the day give me the energy to pack my day full of errands, work, socializing and biking in between.

Food is a source of pleasure, creativity, mental resilience and emotional strength. I don’t know about you, but I get pretty cranky and emotionally unstable if I’m not eating properly. I’m not a particularly fun person to be around, which brings me to my next point.

Food is not just a biological necessity, it’s also a core tenet of culture. We host people in our homes and give them food as a sign of hospitality and generosity. Food is also front and centre at all sorts of cultural occasions – from holidays, celebrations, or even mourning. Wherever you look, food brings people together.

While I have been able to survive on less food this week, my ability to thrive on this diet has been acutely affected. Suddenly, cooking has become an act more of necessity than of creativity or pleasure. And I have to think ahead to how I will feed myself throughout a busy day, planning (and possibly cooking) the day’s meals in advance so I’m not stranded uptown midday with nothing to eat. I am cautious not to invite people to my home for I may have to feed them, and thus cut into my meager rations. What’s most noticeable is my constant worry about running out of food – the stress of not knowing how long I will be able to stretch my 3 day food supply gnaws at me, and makes me even hungrier!

It’s moments like these where my privilege is so apparent.

At the back of my mind is the comfort in knowing that I can end my “food bank diet” whenever I want. Vegetables, chocolate, and almond butter are ready and waiting in my kitchen at a moment’s notice. This is a luxury anyone on social assistance would never have.

Despite this week’s challenge, I will never come close to experiencing the emotional upset that must come with having walk into a food bank or a soup kitchen with a genuine, desperate need for food. Every day I reap the benefits of an education, employment, and a vast network of people who I can turn to in times of need. All of these things were made possible for me through privilege – partly inherent to being White and born in Canada, and partly to being raised in a family that is emotionally and financially supportive. Not everyone is as lucky as I am. But do we not all deserve to eat? Why must feeding oneself (a human need just as important as air and fresh water) come with such a bureaucratic maze and encounters with self-deprecation?

$585/month in social assistance for a single person is nothing short of a recipe for food insecurity and perpetuated poverty. No one can eat a healthy diet on this kind of budget let alone feel like they have agency in their life to change things.

I’ll end with a visual: Poverty is like a big pit – it’s easy to fall into but really hard to get out of. So if you’re going to try and climb out of it, you better eat a damn good breakfast!

Please join me in calling for the Ontario government to Put Food In the Budget: an increase of $100/month in social assistance rates so that everyone can access enough food.