NO need for trolleys for Christine Fox and Gill Isterling on their next supermarket shops. For their basics-only menus next week, baskets will be more than enough.
The two ministers have pledged to live for five days on food costing no more than a fiver per head.
Family members, friends and members of their congregations will join them and "Live Below The Line" during Christian Aid Week, which begins on Sunday.
"I know someone who has done it who says the lack of choice is the thing you notice most," says Methodist minister Christine, 57, of Wollaton.
"If you want a slice of toast as a late-night snack, it's something less for the next day."
Her husband, Keith, will share the experience. "I think he will struggle more than me," she adds. "He likes his meat and veg but I can survive on things like rice."
Live Below The Line is organised by the campaign group Global Poverty Project, which has linked up with charities including Christian Aid.
The aim is to deepen people's understanding of surviving in extreme poverty and to raise funds for the cause. Participants like Christine and Gill, Baptist minister in Lenton, will be donating the balance of the money they would normally spend on food over five days.
Live Below The Line follows the national day of fasting encouraged by the recent church-led Stop Hunger Now campaign, aimed at drawing attention to food poverty in the UK.
Although not as severe as the 40-day liquids-only Lenten fast undertaken by Stop Hunger Now champion Keith Hebden, an Anglican priest from Mans field, Christian Aid is hoping Live Below The Line will do the same job for global poverty.
Both Nottingham ministers have short shopping lists for a regime in which typical meals for a day would include:
Breakfast: Fried egg, porridge oats.
Lunch: Lentil soup, or sardines and raw carrot sticks, or cold rice salad with peas.
Dinner: Rice and lentils, or lentil burgers with rice, carrots and peas. Dessert, porridge and pineapple.
Gill, 54, says: "I thought about driving to Mansfield, where food is cheaper – but it would be wrong to go around in a car looking for the best bargains."
The argument is that the poorest people in regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America would not have that luxury – so on Monday it will be the nearest Aldi and Lidl.
Christine, drawing on her previous career as a nutrition consultant, has already worked out what she can get for Keith and herself for their £10. She has noted that Aldi is doing a kilo of rice for 40p. Frustratingly, she will have 7p in change – and you don't get many treats for that.
If you can't have much fun with porridge and carrot sticks, what will people get out of Living Below The Line?
Gill is hoping for a spiritual return, planning for daily reflection on the themes of Christian Aid Week – how war brings further misery to the poor, disrupting their ability to grow, harvest and consume food.
She will be writing a daily diary for the Baptist Times.
"Something like 1.2 billion people are living below the £1- a-day line, and that's not just for food and drink" says Christine. "This is an opportunity for people to understand that lack of choice."
And temptation? The refrigerator may have to be taped up, she concedes.
As Methodist and Baptist ministers, you would expect Christine and Gill – who between them have nine children and six grandchildren – to avoid excess not for one week a year, but all 52. But surely they will be missing something over their five days of restraint?
"Fresh fruit and vegetables," says Christine. "A Chinese and a good cup of tea," adds Gill, who has worked out that even with the cheapest tea bags, she will not be able to afford milk and sugar.
Christian Aid's East Midlands regional co-ordinator, Judi Perry, said: "Many people spend £2 on a cup of coffee without even thinking about it, but for 1.2 billion people across the developing world, that money would have to cover their living expenses for two days. By taking part in this challenge, we hope people will stop and think about what it would be like to live in extreme poverty."
More information at www.livebelowtheline.com
Will this and the church-led campaign Stop Hunger Now make a difference to food poverty? Share your views on nottinghampost.com.
