WINNIPEG – Cooking a meal has never been more challenging for Jon and Brittney Ljungberg.
“Every meal is a juggling act,” said Jon. “Do I eat now or save it for later? Do I make it stretch? What do you do?”
The father and daughter duo are taking a seven-day challenge called Hunger and Poverty Commitment through Winnipeg Harvest.
They are eating on only $3.96 a day because that’s what thousands of Manitobans living in poverty have to do.
“What we’re living on in a day is probably a buck short of what people pay for a coffee,” said Jon.
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“That is actually half of what I would spend at Starbucks,” said Brittney, 24.
Jon and Brittney hope the near-starvation diet dominated by pasta and oatmeal will bring awareness about the plight of people on social assistance.
Dave Mouland is on social assistance after an injury kept him from working. After paying rent, he can’t afford much food, so he depends on Winnipeg Harvest to survive.
“There are times you just have to go without food, go with two meals a day instead of three,” said Mouland. “There are many times that has happened.”
Every month, roughly 64,000 Manitobans need food from Winnipeg Harvest; half of those are children. That’s the equivalent of filling the MTS Centre four times.
“We have the highest child poverty rate in the country,” said Jon. “It’s deplorable and everybody should be ashamed of that and that’s got to change.”
Jon and Brittney say the diet has left them weak and unable to concentrate, but they hope it inspires the province to increase the amount of social assistance to reflect to the cost of living.
“Those numbers haven’t changed in 20 years — 20 years,” said Jon.
“The entire time I’ve been alive,” said Brittney.
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