Eating on $4 a day

Mon, May 30th 2016, 11:11 AM


Our News anchor Kristina McNeil used her high profile to help raise awareness on the plight of the poor in The Bahamas. McNeil had to make her dollars stretch while shopping in the grocery store as she learned what it is like to eat on $4 a day.

Kristina McNeil, news anchor at Our News, learned of Hands For Hunger's (HFH) Dine On The Line challenge through HFH's Facebook page and used her position to raise public awareness on poverty in The Bahamas, encouraging her coworkers to do the same.

The campaign began last Monday and ended on Thursday.

It challenged Bahamians not to spend more than $4 a day on meals, to raise awareness on what people who live below the poverty line experience daily.

McNeil admitted that she struggled with dining on the $4 a day budget and said she learned quickly that she couldn't afford to eat pre-prepared or fast food without properly budgeting.

She embarked on the challenge with only a beef pattie and a cup of coffee.

Her meal options were limited to canned spaghetti and meatballs, pre-mixed tuna, cream crackers and custard creams, relying heavily on free coffee, tea and water from work to fill hunger gaps.

McNeil said she understands that she is fortunate to know where her next meal is coming from.

However, she said it was her experience of being unemployed after Baha Mar's mass lay offs that forced her to learn better budgeting techniques and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

"I have realized how difficult it is for people to eat well and healthful on a budget," McNeil said.

"If I have to decide between a more filling item, such as crackers, versus a fresh fruit or vegetable, I'm going to choose the item that can last longer.

"I can't imagine the struggle of some Bahamians who have health conditions that require them to eat more or less of certain foods - that must be quite a struggle when you only have $4 per day to spend."

She applauded the impact of the #DineOnTheLine challenge, but said that there is so much more to be done to help those who are still in need.

McNeil pledged to continue helping HFH and said such food initiatives should not only be the responsibility of the government, but also that of private citizens.

Our News reporter Jasmin Brown accepted McNeil's challenge to #DineOnTheLine.

In response to the issues of poverty and malnourishment in The Bahamas, Brown said, the campaign revealed the reality of how many people are struggling.

"So often we hear about the unemployment numbers and how many thousands of people are living below the poverty line, but do we really know what that means?" she asked.

"By having to try to eat on just $4, it's made me realize exactly how little people have and how [nearly] impossible it is for those people to scrape by," Brown said.

As with McNeil, #DineOnTheLine sparked Brown's motives to give back to the community moving forward.

"I will definitely be giving to charities more because, to be honest, I would not have been able to get through the week without the kindness of others, from someone buying me breakfast one morning to another donating a Nutrigrain bar for my lunch," Brown said.

"It was awesome to have help and it made me realize that the only way those people can survive is by getting help from others.

Other participants at Our News pooled their resources to purchase food items.

Teaming up
Former Guardian reporter Krystel Brown and prominent personality Tracy Ann Perpall teamed up for the challenge, using a combined $32 over four days.

Meals consisted mainly of bread, white rice, tuna, canned spaghetti, hard cheese, salami and eggs, ultimately costing them $18.

Perpall expressed her ennui towards the meal options by saying, "I was not excited about these options at all.

"They aren't super healthy and also I wasn't looking forward to eating the same thing almost every day."

The team had little to no breakfast and relied on food donations from coworkers and friends to get through the day.

Their go-to dinner was tuna and white rice.

With $14 remaining, Brown and Perpall were able to treat themselves to fast food options.

According to Brown, franchises were understanding of the cause and were willing to accommodate their needs.

She said the two were even able to convince a manager at McDonald's to give them an additional order of fries and a guava pie to go along with the "Tings Tough" order that they shared.

Both Brown and Perpall were moved to join the challenge after learning about the 43,000 people living below the poverty line.

As a former member of the press, Brown also decided to use her profile to inspire others and said, "When you write about these things, you don't actually know what it is and you don't actually know what people go through."

The degree of poverty in The Bahamas was also shocking to Perpall and inspired her to take action.

"We often think of far away countries when we think of poverty and food insecurity, but to see that it hit so close to home really moved me," she said."You know what they say, you never really know how someone feels until [you've] walked a mile in their shoes, so this was a way to get an experience about how others live in hopes to make changes about it and to bring awareness to other people about hunger in The Bahamas."

For Brown and Perpall, and perhaps many others, #DineOnTheLine highlighted the high cost of healthy foods locally.

Brown said she is lucky to have shared resources for the challenge and reflected on the number of Bahamians who bear this challenge alone.

"If you think about how poor people have to live, the only thing they can afford to eat are unhealthy foods," she said.

"You can't really get healthy food cheaply. It's difficult to be healthy and still try to save money."

Keisha Ellis, HFH's communications manager, said the campaign was inspired by the 2013 Household Expenditure Survey results, which indicated that 43,000 people live on or below the poverty line in The Bahamas.

Some Bahamians only have an estimated $11 to cover daily expenses with about $4 being allocated for the cost of food, according to Ellis.

"As an organization dedicated to eradicating unnecessary hunger in The Bahamas, this statistic stood out to us as a harsh indication of the reality of hunger in The Bahamas," Ellis said.

According to Ellis, the public has widely supported the campaign.

"We've had hundreds of people sign up and a lively conversation is ongoing across social media platforms, using the hash tag #DineOnTheLine," she said.

"Even people who are not officially taking the challenge have reached out to us to express their support of our efforts and how important the conversation about hunger and food costs is."


Ministry of Tourism employees Krystel Rolle-Brown ( a former Nassau Guardian reporter) and Tracy Ann Perpall eating bologna sandwiches during the recent Dine on the Line challenge to raise areness on the plight of the poor.

Jade-Erin Mitchell, Guardian Intern

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