Pic: Sarah Whitehead
Girls from The Only Way is Essex swapped spray tans for saucepans for a cook-off to raise awareness of food poverty.
Lauren Goodger, Peri Sinclair, Frankie Essex and Lauren Pope were challenged to create a meal for three costing only £1 as part of the national poverty campaign ‘Live Below the Line’, which challenges people to live off £5 for food and drink over five days.
The event, which took place on Monday night at the Shoreditch Waterhouse restaurant, saw the Essex girls, in teams of two, prepare a meal from basic ingredients within the price range of 33p a head.
While maintaining their glamour and deciding against pinning their blow-dried locks into hairnets, Goodger and Sinclair made meatballs and spaghetti, while Frankie and Pope cooked-up noodles with peas.
“What, Gordon Ramsay? He’s a bit boring for me,” said Goodger with her manicured hands in a bowl of 10p kidney beans.
Elisha London, UK country director for Live Below the Line, explained to the audience the intention behind the event: “We want people to experience as well as just hear about the choices people have to make. In our society we have so much choice that it is difficult to imagine what real poverty actually is.”
Pic: Sarah Whitehead
In May, thousands of people across the UK will spend just £1 a day on food and drink over the course of a week as part of Live Below the Line. People are encouraged to use their experiences to bring extreme poverty to the forefront of conversation in homes and workplaces. Last year, figures including David Cameron and Hugh Jackman took part.
Participants signing up to the challenge can to choose to be sponsored in support of organisations fighting extreme poverty around the world, including Christian Aid, Malaria No More UK, Restless Development, RESULTS UK, The Salvation Army, UNICEF UK and many more.
London told Eastlondonlines: “Unlike most fundraising activities Live Below the Line asks participants to experience what poverty can feel like. The challenge will give people just a glimpse of what billions of people have to face and hopefully it will begin to make global poverty seem more real.”
