For those uninitiated, Live Below the Line is the annual fundraising campaign for Oaktree, one of Australia’s largest youth-run organisations. Born in 2010 it’s a tough but meaningful challenge. It means strictly planned meals, a few hunger pains and the odd caffeine withdrawal.
From 4th-8th May, thousands of Australians will eat on $2 a day for five days. Feeding yourself on $2 a day is the equivalent of living below the extreme poverty line. It’s a way to raise much-needed funds for Oaktree’s overseas partners, as well as gain a unique insight into some of the challenges faced by those living in extreme poverty.
Now in its fifth year the campaign has raised more than $7.5 million since the its inception in 2010. In support of the event, some of Australia’s most popular music identities are jumping on board including triple j and punk rock royalty, Frenzal Rhomb’s Lindsay McDougall, Superjesus frontwoman and rock legend Sarah McLeod, and new (and hilarious) triple j arvo presenter Veronica Milsom. We chatted to the soon to be starving trio about their involvement with this fantastic cause and how they plan to tackle their hungriest week of the year. For more info on, and to get involved with Live Below The Line 2015, visit www.livebelowtheline.com.au.
Lindsay McDougall
Discovered Live Below The Line “from the lovely and spend thrifty triple j breakfast presenter Alex Dyson. When he first started talking about it I figured it was just another excuse for him to get out of paying for something.
Loves a cheap meal does Dyso. Loves a cheap anything. Except jokes on breakfast radio. They are top class and worth the price. But then I found out that it was a legitimate charity, a very worthwhile cause AND allowed Dyson to act like the cheap bastard he is while still raising awareness for people living in extreme poverty.”
The inspiration to get involved: “Well as you can imagine I have quite a bit of spare time at the moment. And somewhere between casually perusing the employment websites, and the odd masturbatory strums on my guitar, I got a tweet from the lovely people at Oaktree. And as it had been a few days since the last person who tweeted me, I said yes to whatever it was straight away. I’m very glad it was Live Below The Line and not some knucklehead idiots like Reclaim Arsetrailer.”
Ambitions for his involvement: “I don’t have too much to offer these days. I don’t have twelve and a half hours a week to spout out nonsense on the radio. The neighbours are getting bored of me back announcing every song they pump out of their stereo.
But one thing, as an unemployed person who spent the last ten years tenderly massaging the teat of the public broadcaster, can do is not spend very much money, which is the underlying challenge of the week. And as someone who now has a heck of a lot of spare time, I can also shamelessly deluge my wonderful twitter, facebook and instagram followers with requests, please and DEMANDS to donate some money to this very worthwhile cause.
Or even better still, consider signing up yourself! Or, EVEN BETTER STILL, continue your decadent feasts and gorgings, and instead throw some money into my Live Below The Line page, so I don’t feel like I’ve spent 5 whole days living on nothing but rice and lentils and beans for nothing.*
*disclaimer: I’m vegan. I live on pretty much nothing but rice and lentils and beans anyway.
Do you know anyone who has done it before?: “The aforementioned Alex Dyson. He was born to do it so it’ll be a challenge to reach his lofty greatness. Veronica Milsom is doing it this year, so between myself and Veronica we have the unemployed/actually stole my job dynamic covered.
I also spent about a year with my Frenzal Rhomb bandmates (the ones of us that lived out of home) living on a band-funded “salary” of a bit over 200 bucks a week, including rent and libations. So I’m guessing we almost Lived Below The Line back then as well. We definitely learned how to make $2 worth of chips and half a loaf of bread become lunch and dinner for two.”
The challenge plan: “I have actually started to prepare. I’m doing my five days a little early, because Frenzal Rhomb are in Europe during the official week, and with the obscene banquets, luncheons and food parties thrown at us free of charge as a touring punk rock band, it would hardly be fair. So I have begun preparations.
My plan is to shop and cook as I do normally, that is in bulk, but scale it back a heck of a lot. Work out how much rice I can get by on. And the smallest amount of beans and/or lentils to go with it. Buy that from the local bulk co-op, and hopefully have enough cash left over to buy all the vegetable and spice trimmings necessary to make it all not taste like lentils and beans and rice. Also I’m loading up on fresh vegetables and fruits in the days leading up to it to stave off the scurvy and gout.”
Veronica Milsom
Sounds like Dyson is spreading the word throughout the triple j office, as Veronica explains, “Funnily enough I first heard about it [Live Below The Line] on triple j a few years ago when Alex Dyson was talking to listeners about how they were negotiating the challenge of living on $2 a day. I wish I’d heard about it elsewhere, it might make me sound a little less like I’m a triple j obsessed jerk who doesn’t do anything except go to work and think about work. ”
The inspiration to get involved: “Having a big audience on a national radio station is awesome and a huge responsibility. We’re in peoples living rooms, work sites and cars every day, we get to feed them excellent new Australian music AND encourage them to think about great initiatives (like this one!) and how any contribution, no matter how small is worth while.”
Ambitions for her involvement: “Like I said, every little bit helps, so I hope it gets other people thinking about struggles faced by those in less fortunate parts of the world and make people appreciate what we take for granted. Sometimes this stuff seems too big to tackle and it’s very easy to become desensitised. I hope it encourages just a few people to contribute and get involved. Again, every little bit counts.”
The challenge plan: I was planning on just eating white rice and soy sauce but I’ve since been sent a ‘$2 a day recipe book’ from Live Below the Line, so I think that’ll help. The lack of coffee will be the greatest challenge, for both me and those who have to deal with me.
Have you ever had to live below the line out of necessity?: “I’m fortunate enough to say I haven’t, I can’t imagine what it would actually be like. I don’t even think this one week living below the line will give me a real insight, I could tap out and buy burger if I want, the people we’re raising money for can’t.”
Sarah McLeod
Sarah became aquatinted with Live Below The Line after “a friend of mine sent me an email about it.” and “loving a good challenge” she decided to get involved. turns out McLeod has had a bit of training for the five day challenge as she explained “Yes, when I was living in London i was flat broke. It was bread with salt on it for dinner then bread with sugar on it for dessert!” – hot tip.
Ambitions for her involvement: “All we can ever do is help create awareness, and see if we can help get some of these people off the streets. I want to be part of the Live Below The Line campaign because its difficult to have true compassion for a situation until you have walked in their shoes and experienced it first hand. To live on $2 a day seems almost impossible to me but Im looking forward to giving it a go and roping some friends in to do it with me.”
The challenge plan: “I’m thinking a $14 shop of mostly veggies and pasta from Aldi and try and make it last all week.”
