Living Below the Line

The Global Poverty Project came up with an idea.

Last week they challenged ​everyday people to live on the equivalent of the extreme poverty line for five days. 

You basically had to try and feed yourself for a $1.50 a day for 5 days. The challenge was called ​"Live Below the Line".

Many people took the challenge including movie starts like Ben Affleck.

Of course the "Live Below the Line" challenge also happened to fall in the May Ratings period, so you know what that means. ​

At WHNT in Huntsville ​Anchors Greg Screws, Clarissa McClain and Reporter Alicia Esteban, took on the challenge, because after all it's ratings you know.

So how did they do?​

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At the end of the week, Clarissa McClain wrote "I’m feeling so many emotions as the eating challenge comes to an end — hungry, drained, a little light-headed, forgetful (probably because of the hunger), irritable… But most of all, I’m feeling grateful."

We're guessing she wrote that just before pulling into the McDonald's drive thru (the Shamrock Shake is down to it's final few days). 

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​Anchor Greg Screws wrote "I envisioned my Friday blog about Live Below the Line being all tough. It was not as hard as I thought.

Below the Line was all mental.

I would eat on $1.50 a day and like it.  I was wrong.  I’m glad it’s over.  It’s worn me out.

Limited food.  Unhealthy food.

Tomorrow I will have a salad big enough to cover a small dog."

Alicia Esteban had this to say " I decided to warm up my frozen meal. At first I thought it would be a great, complete dinner. It had chicken, corn, and smashed potatoes. I take it out of the freezer, put it in the microwave for the first 3 minutes, and it didn’t seem too bad. After stirring some of the food (as instructions said), I proceeded in warming it up 3 more minutes. I take out the platter from the microwave, take a quick look at the chicken, and this is what I find:

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"Is this even chicken? This is when I decided to eat the potatoes and corn, then throw away the chicken. How could people eat it? Is it even healthy? I thought it would be better to wait until I got back home and, once again, eat more noodles."The challenge is over ​for the trio but ratings are not. Time to fill up your belly and find another sweeps stunt. We still got a couple of weeks left in the book. 

​Here's the blog to the WHNT Live Below the Line Challenge