Inspired by a Global Poverty Project presentation on campus, the president of Western Carolina University’s Student Government Association and the wife of Chancellor David O. Belcher will eat on just $1.50 per day for five days.

To help raise awareness of global poverty, student TJ Eaves and Susan Brummell Belcher will participate in the Live Below the Line campaign beginning Monday, Oct. 24. Belcher and Eaves acknowledge the challenges ahead.

“It will be a pretty interesting week because I am a fairly picky eater,” Eaves said. Belcher said she’d have to explore whether coffee with cream will fit in her budget.

“If not, I’ll struggle with that one,” she said.  

Participating in the challenge is a natural fit for Belcher, who after her husband’s appointment as new WCU chancellor designated herself a “WCU friend-raiser” and pledged to “wholeheartedly engage with students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni, community members and other constituent parties to create broad support for the WCU mission.”

For WCU students who wish to participate in the challenge, Aramark, WCU’s food service provider, will host a station in the upper level of the Courtyard Dining Hall with foods and portions that comply with the Live Below the Line initiative for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Thursday, Oct. 27.

While Belcher and Eaves have initiated the project primarily to raise awareness, Belcher does have a goal to raise money for CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting poverty in more than 70 countries around the world. Anyone interested in sponsoring them or joining their effort, including community members, can visit WCU’s Live Below the Line page online (http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=262576). Updates on the effort will be available on the WCU Poverty Project Facebook page.