SPECIAL REPORT: Welfare Challenge, a look back

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Some people ran out of food, and one person dropped out of the $26 a week Welfare Food Challenge because they just couldn’t cope.

We check in with News1130‘s Andrea Macpherson who has wrapped up her week on a very tight budget.  She finished with just over a $1 to spare.

Andrea says she didn’t go hungry but she wasn’t full at anytime either.  She feels she should have had more to eat and that the extra dollar could have been spent on something to lift her spirits.

Bill Hopwood with Raise the Rates says others taking the challenge are not doing so well.

“They are all saying, ‘I am hungry all the time, I’m thinking about food all of the time.’  A lot of them are thinking, ‘I’m doing this for only a week and I know I can hang in there,’ but they don’t know what they would do if it was two weeks or three.”

He says most were shocked how hard it was to take on.  “At what $26 actually gets them and [the challenge] has given them a profound insight in to shopping and food, not to mention what it might be like to live on welfare.”

Andrea says having a finish line helped her a lot.  “I know you can’t compare this to someone actually living through it because what worked for me would not work for others.”

Andrea had access to a kitchen which is not an option for everybody.  “This was a personal story which got people talking.  There were a lot of differing views, but in the end it all boils down to food, a basic need our survival depends on.”

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