Note: This post is a cross blog post with the United Way of King County.

I couldn’t pay my bills. I was a single mother of two children, one with a disability. I longed to qualify for food stamps.

That was 6 years ago.

I had a good job. I was a program director for a youth center. It was fulfilling, and the benefits covered the crucial therapy for my severely autistic son. But the pay for a rewarding job is, well…let’s say, meager.

I had to take a second job working as a cocktail waitress at a casino in the evenings. But it was the only way I could get by – and even that wasn’t always enough.

There were days when I wasn’t sure how to get to work because I had no money for gas. Where I lived, there was no public transportation. But the worst feeling was worrying about food. I made $50 more a year than the requirement to qualify for food stamps. To get by, we pretty much lived on tuna and Ramen.

I remember one day in particular when I went into the cupboard and there were only condiments. I started to cry. I had a few dollars ($5.00 to be exact) to last for two more days. I had a choice to buy food or buy gas so I could get work the next two days. I knew I had to go to work because I couldn’t afford the day off and I knew if I did call in sick this dilemma would come again in two weeks. I loaded my kids in the car, went to the gas station and got $4 in gas. I took the extra dollar with me to the grocery store and bought a bag of tortilla chips. We literally lived off of chips for the next two days.

Many people in Seattle have taken on the United Way of King County’s Hunger Challenge. They’re living on only $7 a day – the amount of food stamps an individual would receive if they were considered low income. But for me, and many others who have been — are still in — a real life Hunger Challenge, living on $49 a week in food stamps sounds like a luxury.

I have read many blog posts and tweets chronicling the day-by-day “struggles” of people who’ve never been hungry and are participating in the Hunger Challenge for one week of their lives. To be honest, I found some of the posts offensive. Many people were complaining about the loss of their daily lattes and organic yogurts. Others were stating how they may have to cheat because it’s impossible to live off of that amount of money (isn’t that the point of the exercise?). I almost felt as if they were looking for sympathy for themselves.

Now, there are many very heart felt blogs pointing out how many people have to decide between eating and paying rent. Because I was one of those people I started to go back to the days of my struggles and realized how blessed I really am. Even though times were hard I was still very lucky. I had friends and family near by to help with childcare and a friend who took me in when I lost my home.

And I’ve been able to work my way out of that situation. Today, life is good. I have three healthy children, a great husband, nice home, a good job and food to eat every night. I am so grateful for everything I have.

I work for a wonderful organization called SeeYourImpact.org, and part of my daily work is getting food to people who are in even more dire straights than mine. Unlike in America where people are given resources like medicare and WIC, families across the world face an incomparable struggle to make it on their own. We partner with organizations (like United Way) to provide simple solutions, such as providing school lunches to children in southern India (which helps with immediate food security) and school fees in Guatemala (a good education provides food security for generations to come).

I don’t want anyone to feel that pain in their stomach from not having anything to eat, and I especially don’t want that for a child.

I’m glad the Hunger Challenge is giving people an opportunity to experience a life they’ve never had to (and hopefully will never have to) live. People struggling to get by don’t need sympathy. They do need your empathy – an empathy that hopefully leads to action. Consider donating the money you’re saving on food this week to help someone who’s Hunger Challenge won’t end on Friday. As someone who has briefly walked in their shoes, I can’t tell you how much your gift will mean.

And remember. The next time you buy your $4 latte: 80% of the world lives on less than $10 a day. I promise you’ll get an even richer satisfaction if you round up and invest that $10 elsewhere.

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