USSU President Jared Brown will eat only the contents of a food bank basket for the next week.

University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union President Jared Brown will be living on five dollars and a food basket for the next week.

Brown and several other prominent Saskatoon citizens are taking the Saskatoon Food Bank’s annual Food Basket Challenge. The basket includes mainly dry pantry items, small amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables and some meat.

The food bank uses the event to generate awareness of poverty in Saskatoon and says it is not a fundraiser.

“When you find yourself complaining about things, doing a challenge like this really puts you back in your place.” — USSU President Jared Brown

Although the food baskets supply two to three days worth of food and are meant for emergency situations, many families in Saskatoon face the harsh reality of regularly feeding themselves from a basket for as long as two weeks.

Brown picked up his basket from the food bank Sept. 12, which will feed him from Sept. 13 to 19. The challenge caps off with a meal at the farmer’s market, where participants will meet and talk about their experience.

“It’s bringing attention to poverty in Saskatoon,” Brown said. “They’re not asking for money. They’re getting people to get involved and realize the massive gap that we have here in Saskatoon.”

Hunger is a multifaceted issue with deep roots. People living with hunger and in poverty often face barriers that prevent them from making, finding or buying healthy food. These barriers include levels of education, employment, housing, disabilities and transportation.

Saskatoon’s west side is an area where a large percentage of its population lives below the poverty line and in food deserts. Food deserts are areas that are without easy access to healthy food or a grocery store.

“With a food desert comes poverty, with poverty comes health issues,” Brown said.

In the situation that Brown finds himself hungry and out of food, he will have to resort to community kitchens. He is not permitted to accept food as gifts or donations and is not allowed to eat at a restaurant.

Brown believes that if he has to drop out of the challenge, it would emphasize how difficult survival on a food basket is.

“This is very difficult to do and… this is how people live every single day.”

Anticipating being hungry, tired and irritable, Brown said he also expects that this experience will bring everyday life into perspective.

“When you find yourself complaining about things, doing a challenge like this really puts you back in your place.”

Brown normally eats out, so not being able to do so will be a change of habit as he will have to get accustomed to bringing his own food from home for lunch during the Food Basket Challenge.

He said there is no real way to prepare for the challenge.

“How do [people] prepare to be in poverty, live in the streets and not eat? It happens to a lot of people. Bad things happen to people and they’re thrust into the circumstance.”

Participants in the Food Basket Challenge include community organization members, business leaders and local media figures.

Throughout the week, Brown and the other participants will blog their experiences at foodbasketchallenge.com.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf