I almost burned my soup today. 

"No! No! No! Noooo!" I yelled as I turned off the burner then moved the soup off the hot stove.  For a moment, I just stared at it with my hand in my hair, gripping my scalp.

I don't normally behave this way about burned soup. 

But today, if I had burned the soup, that would have been it.  Done.  No food until dinner.

And I was HUNGRY!

That's because this week I am doing the Live Below the Line challenge.  The organization challenges people in the US to live on $1.50 per day of food.  I bought the equivalent of $7.50 worth of food that had to last me for five days. 

So this bowl of soup represented my only choice for a midday meal.  If I burned it, that was it.  I would go hungry until dinner.  And I was already hungry.  That's why I turned the flames up high.  I wanted it to cook faster because I was hungry.  I was eating lunch a little early, because I was hungry.

This is all just an exercise, so I know that at the end of the week I can go back to eating what I want, when I want.  But in that moment when I thought I might have burned the soup, I was panicked.  My stomach was growling.  I didn't just want the soup.  I needed the soup. 

And that's how it is for people who live with this kind of hunger.  One mistake can be dramatic.  It means not eating for that meal or that day or even a couple of days.  As I stood there, staring at the pot, praying that when I stirred it that the lentils would not be all stuck to the bottom, that's when I got it.  The importance of soup. 

The importance of food for people who have so little.

So I urge you to give.  Whether it's $1, $5, $10, $100 or whatever you can. 

This week go without your latte and give someone some soup.

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/tamela

Attempting to raise $500.  For soup.