Another update from Baroness Jenkin:

I was delighted to host an event in the River Room at the House of Lords last night for the Global Poverty Project and the charity partners, Restless Development (for whom, as one of their patrons, I am fundraising); Results UK; Salvation Army; Christian Aid; and Think Global, all of whom had invited their top fundraisers.  The Lord Speaker generously welcomed us and gave us an insight about how she was managing on £1 a day.  Lord McConnell told us that he had lost 7lbs during his five days (he started early) and shared with us how difficult it had been watching his family eat a large fry up on Monday morning while he had a solitary banana.  I think that many men may have found it more difficult as they are not so used to shopping or really working out what you can buy for very little.

We watched a shortened version of the “1.4 Billion Reasons” presentation, ably presented by Elisha London the very inspiring young Country Director of the Global Poverty Project.  Such a compelling presentation with footage and data from around the world.  We often hear of the challenges of fighting extreme poverty, and yet many of the stories were encouraging.  Ghana for example where things have improved immeasurably in recent years.  And it rightly reminded us that as late as the 1850s when the River Thames and sewage was finally sorted out, London was a cholera stricken, rat infested, disease ridden city.  It was greatly encouraging to see how progress is being made, and inspired to each play our part.  With so much gender inequality (women do two thirds of the world’s work and are paid 10% of the wages), disease, lack of education and hunger present in our world, we have a long way to go in the fight against extreme poverty.

By 7.15 you could almost hear the stomachs rumbling.  But by 7.20 we were all eating the most delicious 3 bean dal and rice, – hats off to Uschi for cooking for 80 people for a total of just over £24 – read her account of how she managed here: http://www.facebook.com/LBLuk – and how she too struggled with the induction hob!!

Today – more porridge for breakfast.  Definitely looking forward to an egg on Saturday!  Crisis round the breakfast table when it emerged that my husband had eaten our lodger’s precious last banana which had been budgeted and saved for her breakfast tomorrow.  I promised to replace it and am shocked to find that a banana in the canteen costs 45p! Half a day’s allowance!

Last day in the soup kitchen.  I lug the food in again on my bike. I think Lord Inge who has the office next door will be pleased to say goodbye to the lunchtime chatter.  All agree that sharing our meal has made the experience more fun.  The Lord Speaker is again generous with her compliments about my soup.  Lady Jolly comes hot foot from doing the Politics Show with Lord McConnell.  We decide the value white bread is significantly worse than the wholemeal – same price (47p) but nothing like as palatable.  But even so the sandwich tastes delicious.  Rice pudding today for dessert. 8p a portion.  One male friend who drops in for lunch begs for a second cup of soup – budgeted in of course to his daily allowance.

One more day tomorrow.  Whether we have participated in the challenge or not, I think it has given us all food for thought.  Not least how much food is wasted in this country, how we can all shop more wisely and waste less and of course, as well as raising significant amounts of money – and it looks as though I may hit an amazing and unexpected £10k – raising awareness about extreme global poverty.  Of course none of us can know what it feels like to be really poor, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t engage with the issue in whatever way we can. We all have hopes and dreams, however the poor have man made barriers that more often than not mean it is less likely to be able to achieve them.

As Elisha put it so graphically last night, extreme poverty is the slavery issue of our generation and I for one will do what I can to see that the Global Poverty Project helps build the movement to  eradicate extreme poverty within that generation.