Today was by far the most challenging. I've been at the drop-in today. The place that inspired us to take part in this challenge and somewhere that really has my heart. We were short-staffed today so I spent the entire session in the kitchen. Torture!!
I took yet more soup along with me but we were so busy I only managed to eat about half of it. Whilst we were serving up this little lot...
I missed being among the clients, there's less opportunity to chat with people when you're in the kitchen but I did manage to sort a guy out with a pair of trainers. He's living on the streets and has been wearing size 6 shoes on his size 9 feet!! I tracked a pair down just after he'd left so had to chase him down the street wearing a hair net and wielding shoes. Those times are precious. To know we make a huge difference through such simple actions. We can't do everything for everyone. We can't fix these guys' lives. But we can treat them like important, valued human beings. And who wouldn't want that!?
I was properly ravenous when I got in. My mum was coming for tea as we were all going to watch Matthew in his play tonight. I did chicken egg fried rice.
The only extra ingredient was soy sauce, and we used about half a bottle between us! Taking us right up to the £20 mark. It hit the spot and there's enough left for an extra portion. Les told Sophie she could have anything she wanted for tea tomorrow, and after an initial answer of 'sweets' she said "can I have mummy's fried rice but with loads of soy sauce". Love that kid!
Matt's play was brilliant. But Sophie had her first wobble of the week, over apple juice. 8pm on Day 5 though, I don't think we've done bad!
We took a late night trip to Aldi afterwards to stock up for tomorrow. Which is a bit torturous but I want to be able to eat tasty things as soon as I get up! In fact I've been planning tomorrow's breakfast all day! Sophie got a basket and did her own little shop. Nice try kid!
This was our hoard. I so can't wait to eat it!
I've planned our meals for tomorrow; breakfast will be brioche, fruit and eggy bread and bacon. Lunch is roast squash and halloumi and I'm out for tea but the Steele's are having chicken stew and dumplings. Yum!
This has been challenging. I've been tired, unfocussed, moody, and of course hungry. The advanced preparation definitely helped and this is the first year I've not panicked about the kids having something to eat. But the support from my lovely friends, family and colleagues has made this much more bearable. There's a purpose to this for us, if we were living like this out of necessity I think I would get very down very quickly. It would be hard to maintain that level of planning, getting the most out of every ingredient, and you need some cooking skills to start with. If you've never cooked, where would you even start on this kind of budget? Oven chips probably. Poverty is a very real problem in our society. Not just for the reasons the politicians will give you, that people are lazy, or spend all their money on big TVs and beer. And some people need a hand. I hope to never be in the position that some of our clients are in, but if I ever am I hope that someone will treat me with dignity and respect and help me out as a fellow human being.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. I've really enjoyed writing the blog, it's been a good focus through the week. If you've sponsored us, thank you for that too. You could be the clean socks, the toothbrush, the extra banana, or the size 9 pair of trainers.
