This week I am eating on just $1.50 a day, and I am experiencing firsthand how 1.4 billion people worldwide eat below the poverty line.

Eating only $1.50 a day is HARD. Over the past five months I have committed to living more healthfully, and I have purchased and prepared the highest quality food I have ever imbibed. I have lost weight, but rarely felt hungry as my pampered, overfed American body digested those roasted almonds, organic vegetables, sprouted-grain breads, green smoothies, free range chickens and more.

$1.50 a day means no organic foods that make your body sing. It means very little protein. It means no morning coffee, no evening glass of wine, no extras at all as those precious, minimal calories available for that low price must be saved for fuel. I never before realized that my morning Keurig-brewed Italian Roast, rice krispies with vanilla soy milk and banana were luxurious. But together they amount to more than $1.50, and thus, this week breakfast is only a banana (and not an organic one, at that.)

This week lunch will be simply rice or potatoes with a cheap vegetable, dinner will be rice and beans. And those beans? There are no cans of Amy’s this week. I had to purchase those beans dry, soak them, and cook them plainly without expensive seasonings or cold-pressed olive oil in order to stay within my below-the-poverty-line budget. (Please note that I am the only one in my family eating this way this week; my three children will eat as usual.)

Of course, I will be only eating #belowtheline. As my stomach rumbles and I drool as I make my children’s PB&J, I will be standing in my air-conditioned home, with running water I can customize to any temperature. I will be drinking only water, but that water will be fresh, filtered, fluorided. I will take a multivitamin, an iron supplement, and my medications. I will not want for anything, and my life will still be comfortable.

I am blessed to be able to feed my family healthy, hearty, nutrient-packed meals every single day. My son and two daughters never go to bed hungry, and they will never miss a day of school until they are old enough to make their own educational choices as adults.

However, 1 in 8 people go to bed hungry each night. Parents are forced to pull their children, especially their daughters, out of school in order to take jobs to feed the family. That is why I am an advocate for and a personal supporter of the World Food Program USA (WFP USA), a nonprofit organization committed to ending global hunger.

WFP USA’s work for the United Nations World Food Program and other hunger relief operations has proven that school meals — a guaranteed daily meal for children in poverty — is the greatest incentive for families to send and keep kids in school. This week WFP USA, and other U.S. charities that fight extreme poverty, have teamed up with the Global Poverty Project to Live Below the Line. This is a massive mobilization of blessed, non-hungry people like myself experiencing what it is like to live like the 1.4 billion people who have no choice but to live below the poverty line every day.

I am a member of Team Mission List for the WFP, along with Morra Aarons-Mele, Dresden Schumaker, Kelly Wickham, Jessica Cohen, Heather Barmore and Jennifer Vento. We are living on just $1.50 a day for food and drink and raising awareness and funds. For every $250 we raise, 1,000 school meals will be provided to the children who need it most. You are welcome to donate to our team, or you can contribute by spreading the word by sharing this post with friends.

Thank you for reading this post about a cause that matters a great deal to me, assisting mothers and children in poverty.

I have partnered with The Mission List as a consultant and social media voice to help spread the word about WFPUSA. I have been compensated for my work in the past, but serving as a member of the The Mission List WFP Team for #BelowtheLine is unpaid and completely voluntary. All opinions are my own.