TWO councillors have raised an amazing amount of money for a local foodbank after challenging themselves to live off just £1 per day for a week.

Rosemary Liewald and Lea McLelland wanted to attempt the challenge to raise awareness of food poverty, and show people how hard it is for families to live off low incomes.

For seven days the two women had just £7 each to spend at the start of the week and that would have to do their breakfast, lunch and dinners.

Speaking to the Times about how the challenge went, Rosemary said: “The challenge of £7 for seven days was devised as a means to initially raise money for the much needed Benarty Food Bank.

“The team there are an integral part of the community and however much we absolutely admire the work they do, this is a sad refection on the times we live, in that in 2020 this group are described as “integral “.

“The Food Bank provides food to people in crisis throughout Benarty and neighbouring villages - Cardenden, Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly, Lumphinnans and Kelty.

“The £7 we spent provided us with what we would describe as a meagre supply of food to last the seven days. We purchased eggs, cheese, sausages, potatoes, pasta, processed chicken, corned beef and bread. Among that we were not able to have any supply of fruit or veg.”

Lea said the shopping they were able to afford provided them with little substance.

She said: “What we very quickly saw was that our supplies provided very little vitamin or mineral content and was seriously lacking in protein.

“We managed to create and eek out dishes to feed ourselves over the seven days, we didn’t starve. However, we also didn’t need to share what we had with other family members.

“However, by midweek we were experiencing headaches, lack of sleep, worry about how we could sustain ourselves for the rest of week and our thoughts were continually turning to the thought of food itself.

“What this challenge has done is provoke conversations and questions in regard to food poverty and fuel poverty because simply, you have to use fuel to cook.

“The fact is, if we didn’t have our food banks and our breakfast clubs, families who are struggling on universal credit and many who are our working poor would simply fall further down through the cracks in society.

“Poverty alone is known to dangerously affect children's experience of, and success in, education.”

“We are delighted to say we have raised a staggering £1,000, which will be handed over to Maggie and Lisa at Benarty next week. Our thanks and appreciation go to everyone who donated.”

Scientists have shown that hunger is not just something transient. Hunger during childhood can have a ripple effect we are only just beginning to understand. The long-term physical and psychological consequences of hunger are serious and have implications for the health of society itself. Food insecurity is a ticking time-bomb for today’s hungry generations and if we don’t do something soon to rectify the unfair distribution of wealth and address the horrendous impact of universal credit on our poorer member of society then these hungry generations will suffer and know nothing other than Food Banks for generations to come .