My week on refugee rations: 'I lost 4lbs, I felt tired, glum and very emotional'

Perhaps it’s the effects of the diet lingering on, or maybe disheartenment due to the lack of empathy and compassion that many seem to have for humans less fortunate than ourselves – refugees.

It breaks my heart to think of all that these families have lost, many with ‘normal’ lives like ours before having to flee the dangers and persecutions of conflict in countries that they once felt safe.

It’s sobering to realise I don’t have to fight to stay alive, I have access to medical treatments and mental wellbeing, I can choose what I want to eat, I can put the heating on when I am cold.

I can only imagine how hard it must be for refugee parents to constantly worry about feeding their children and them having enough nutrients to grow up healthily, let alone comprehend the uncertain future these young people have ahead of them.

I lost 4lbs in weight, I felt tired, I felt glum and very emotional as the challenge week went on. Beyond that empty feeling you get when you don’t eat much I didn’t actually feel too hungry, but felt the effects in other ways – headaches, stomach cramps and lower back pain as my body attempted to process the carbs from the rice, flour-based flat breads and my protein source of beans. It is not a balanced diet – it’s lacking in nutrients.

We take so many things for granted, like having access to fresh fruit and vegetables and the option to have an easy microwave meal or a takeaway.

There was a lot of prep involved in creating my daily meals – firstly I had to plan in advance what I would eat so that I didn’t run out of food, chickpeas needed to be soaked overnight and took hours to cook and everything had to be prepared from scratch.

I had to stay up late to prepare food as I wouldn’t have time during the day – there’s no option to pop to the shop for a readymade sandwich here or pick something easy up when you are too tired to cook.

The rations:

• 170g of lentils
• 420g rice
• 85g of dried chickpeas
• a 400g tin of kidney beans
• 330ml of vegetable oil
• A couple of coupons to get some extra rice and flour
  (1.5kg of rice and 400g of flour) These extra components represent what refuges can buy with coupons given by other aid agencies.
• Tin of sardines (I’m vegan, so replaced this with extra chickpeas)
• Chilli powder for seasoning and salt – I sponsored myself to get the chilli powder and did a flash fundraiser to raise enough in 24 hours to add salt to my rations.
• Five teabags and two teaspoons of sugar

DAY 1

Main meal: Rice and beans with one flatbread

Notes:

• I decided to eat just one meal after having a large ‘last meal’ the night before. I only drank water as saved the teabags for workdays.
• Flatbreads are a nice addition to a meal and help fill me up – making the most out of the flour allowance and are easy to make (see recipe below)

Pitfalls:

• I added too much chilli powder to the rice but had to eat it as you can’t be fussy when on rations
• Had terrible headache all day

How to make flatbreads (makes 4-5)

Ingredients

1 cup of flour (150g)

1 tablespoons of oil

1/3 cup of water

Method

1. Place flour in bowl and add cold water slowly until dough is soft and sticky
2. Sprinkle some flour on chopping board/workbench and knead dough by pushing down and outward using heels of hands.
3. Separate dough into 4 parts (depending on what size you want) and flatten with rolling pin or hands.
4. Heat oil in frying pan and cook flatbreads on both sides until slightly browned.

DAY 2

Breakfast: Flatbread and black tea

Lunch: Rice and beans (leftovers from day before)

Snack: One flat bread with a few kidney beans

Drink: Two pots of tea made from one teabag and water

Notes: I managed to make two pots of tea with one teabag, although the later cups were weak my morning headache started to disappear with the addition of caffeine.

Me on the second day of rice and beans

DAY 3

Breakfast: Congee (plain rice – boiled with extra water to make rice pudding constituency)

Lunch: Flatbread and hummus

Main meal: Bean and lentil burgers, flatbread, and hummus

Drink: Two pots of tea made from one teabag and water

Pitfalls:

• I felt too tired to prepare food the night before but did remember to soak the chickpeas overnight
• Chickpeas took more than two hours to cook in the morning
• Bean and lentil burgers were the nicest meal of the whole week, will be making these again although I had to add extra flour as they were too runny – which meant less for making other planned meals.

DAY 4

Breakfast: Congee (this time I added half a teaspoon of sugar, which improved the dish)

Lunch: Flatbread and hummus

Main meal: Bean and lentil burgers, flatbread, and hummus

Drink: Two pots of tea made from one teabag and water

Pitfalls:

• I felt particularly hungry and tired today and was relieved to have food from the day before already prepared, but my mood was low and I felt depressed.
• Didn’t sleep well, woke up all through the night hot, uncomfortable and had lower back pain.

The bean and lentil burgers were a highlight

DAY 5

Breakfast: Congee (again!) – It’s probably the quickest meal to make if hungry and haven’t had time to prepare as it takes 30 minutes to cook. But pretty much everyone who has done this challenge has now gone off rice! The thought of rice as I’m writing this now makes me feel sick.

No lunch

Main meal: Two falafels, flatbread and a few kidney beans

Notes: Made hummus for following day along with extra flatbreads

Pitfalls:

• I decide to change my plans to make a rice and lentil dish as I could not bear the thought of more white rice.
• So I attempt to make falafels, I’d soaked the chickpeas overnight and didn’t cook them – blending them with a bit of water and flour they resembled nothing like falafel and were not particularly nice, tasteless and very hard and crunchy. I instantly regretted using the last of my chickpeas for this dish.
• Suffered from brain fog and my concentration levels seem impaired - I added too much water, but no chickpeas left so will have to make do. I did the same with the flatbread mix – adding too much water, with my flour supplies now depleted I had to add more oil while frying to stop them from sticking. They were not as nice as my first batch.

The falafel's didn't turn out well

DAY 6:

Breakfast: I go without breakfast as I feel sick

Lunch: Two falafels, hummus and a flatbread

Main meal: Lentil soup, rice cakes and roasted chickpeas

Pitfalls:

• Rations are running low now… there is a lot of rice left though. In a bid to make the rice more palatable I attempt to make rice cakes – they’re horrible – very hard on the outside and soft in the inside, like eating plastic. Still, I haven’t got much food so need to eat them.
• I use my remaining lentils to make soup, but the quantity is so small I have to add boiled water, I made the same mistake of adding too much chilli and yesterday’s flatbreads have gone very hard after using so much oil.
• I have stomach cramps, I’m not sure if from the rice or the chickpea falafel.
• My mood is low today and I feel down. Just one more day to go.

Notes: The only saving grace was the roasted chickpeas (another simple addition) – I just coated the pre-soaked chickpeas in an oil, chilli powder and salt and bunged them in the oven. These on top of the soup made the meal more bearable.

The roasted chickpeas were a saving grace

DAY 7:

Breakfast: Black tea with sugar

Lunch: Lentil soup, flatbreads and roasted chickpeas

Main meal: Rice cakes, hummus and kidney beans

Pitfalls:

• I feel particularly down today and very lethargic, I was supposed to be going to an outdoor event but could not muster up the energy
• I had to force myself to eat the remains of the rice cakes and ration leftovers as I had no appetite
• I had to reuse teabags from the previous couple of days and add sugar for a boost

Final thoughts: Refugees are inventive with what they have and work out ways to spread the food further, I made a few mistakes during the week and can’t imagine having to eat the same rations week after week. The lack of variety and nutrients make the task difficult. It’s amazing that so many people live on these rations long-term.

At the end of the challenge I had a lot of rice left and some oil, but that was it, I didn’t raise enough to add a vegetable and really missed that, all the food prep was laborious and time consuming and I was constantly washing pots. The food would have been very bland if I hadn’t had chilli and salt.

Thank you to all the people who care about the plight of refugees and who sponsored me.

The challenge is over for me, but not for the refugees.

Read more on why I decided to take the challenge:

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/18720212.ration-challenge-2020-coping-food-ration-challenge/