Day 1: Starting Strong!

Day 1 down, 29 to go! This is my 6th time to do this challenge and while it is certainly a challenge, I enjoy doing it. It's been almost two years since I did it last. And it has been 10 years since I did my first challenge!

For those of you who have not followed my previous challenges, the idea is quite simple: I buy $30 worth of groceries and improvise to make it stretch over 90 meals in 30 days, in an effort to better empathize with the world's extremely poor, millions who often live off of a similar food budget.

My goals of the challenge are fourfold: 

• To keep perspective and gratitude myself
• To raise awareness of extreme poverty
• To find more support for my nonprofit organization which aids orphans and trafficking survivors in Asia & Africa 
• To demonstrate that it is possible to be creative in preparing tasty meals with simple ingredients, to remind ourselves that in much of Western society we overindulge and buy into lies about what we need to satiate our hunger. 

Lunchtime at the Peace Gospel 'Children's Hope Center' in Kampala, Uganda

For this challenge, I am setting my charitable goal once again to find monthly recurring donors to help sustain the needs of our work beyond the 30 days of this challenge. 

I do this because for these I am advocating for, the challenge goes on well after day 30. 

I am going to use a small "heart-chart" to visually demonstrate our progress toward my goal of finding 50 new monthly sustainers.

Tap on the chart and enter the amount you would like to sponsor monthly, and then by tomorrow I will fill in the heart(s) to show that it has (they have) been sponsored!

The magic is in the simple math: if we fill in all the hearts during this 30 days, that will represent $1,775 in monthly, recurring support for orphans and trafficking survivors, every single month, or $21,300 annually!

It's the power of the sum of consecutive integers plus the power of recurring or incremental investment into solving the problems of extreme poverty among society's most vulnerable.

On to the meals! Very grateful that my girlfriend is helping me this time around! First time anyone has ever done it with me. She's such an amazing support!

Breakfast. Savory oatmeal topped with a fried egg and seasoning. ▼

Lunch. Pasta & boiled potato cubes with tomato sauce. ▼

Dinner. Soup: carrot & potato puree with brown rice and tomato sauce. ▼

Take Action!

1) Please consider helping me reach my goal to find 50 new "Sustainers"— donors willing to give a small amount each month toward our work helping vulnerable children and trafficking survivors. Go here and enter the amount you would like to give monthly!

2) Please visit my unofficial sponsor, Amazon.com through this link. 7% of your purchases made through the link are given to the work of Peace Gospel's programs helping orphans, at-risk children of the slums, and human trafficking survivors.

3) If you're compelled by my effort here, please share it with friends. One of the main goals is awareness. So if you can help with that, huge.

4) Leave me feedback. Please comment on this post, especially if you have any ideas about what I should try to cook with these ingredients I have available. I love hearing from you! It really helps!