THE Revd Kate Bottley, who appears on the Channel 4 programme
Gogglebox, will live on just £1 a day as part of the
campaign "Live Below the Line".
She will have a budget of £1 a day for food and drink, and will
donate her normal £100 shopping bill to the charity Send a Cow, a
partner of the Global Poverty Project, which is running the
campaign.
Mrs Bottley (above), who is Vicar of Blyth and Scrooby
with Ranskill, in Nottinghamshire, said that she was "dreading" the
challenge, but felt she had to do something "more challenging" than
just giving up chocolate for Lent. "It's going to be a real
challenge: I'm very much a foodie; I love my food.
"Where I live, we have three rural parishes, and people often
drop food round, and I find potatoes or pheasants or homemade jam
on the doorstep, but I'm not allowed to cheat and eat free food.
And my family aren't doing it with me, which will be hard: I'll
have to cook for them, but not taste or pinch their food.
"I think I'm going to be having a lot of porridge and boiled
rice. Fortunately, I love porridge, but it's the things that you
put in that make it so nice, like blueberries, and I won't be able
to have any of that. I'm going to have very little meat and no
fresh fruit or veg, I expect."
Mrs Bottley will continue to feature in Gogglebox in
the evenings with her husband, Graham - an extra challenge, as she
won't be allowed any TV snacks.
"I'm also going to have to turn down coffee after church, and
the Mothers' Union cakes. And I have a wedding on Saturday, and
have been invited to the reception afterwards. When I'm offered
champagne, I'll have to ask for a glass of tepid water instead. I
fear I'll get very grumpy, but I'm determined to do it right."
All the money raised by Send a Cow through the initiative will
go to support people in Burundi, which is ranked as the world's
hungriest country. Fifty-eight per cent of the population is
chronically malnourished, the World Food Programme says.
The campaign Live Below the Line runs until 1 May. It is
supported by a number of charities, including Save the Children,
Action Aid, and UNICEF. Last year, the initiative raised nearly
£750,000.
www.livebelowtheline.com/uk