A BLAND diet consisting of not much more than potatoes, pasta, porridge and bread has been suffered by a Clevedon family living below the poverty line.

As part of a five-day challenge to raise money for Oxfam, Rosie Sisson, her husband David Didau and their daughters Olivia and Madeleine have been spending just £1 per day each on food and drink since Sunday.

This is part of an international initiative called Live Below the Line which is run by the Global Poverty Project and Oxfam is one of 33 UK organisations supporting it.

It aims to raise awareness of the extreme poverty threshold beneath which 1.4billion people have to survive each day.

Rosie, aged 40 of Highdale Road, said: “Sometimes you forget how lucky you are in every area of your life and you can become complacent about how easy it is to feed, clothe and look after your family.

“I hope that we will appreciate life more as a result and remain compassionate to the plight of other people who have less than us.”

Rosie and her family hope to raise £700 for Oxfam, which will include the amount of money they would normally have spent on food during the five days.

Speaking before the start of the challenge, Rosie added: “I’m interested to discover how I’ll react to having to eat the same cheap, tasteless food day in and day out and how it will affect my attitude to the world around me, which will be carrying on as normal.”

During the challenge, nine-year-old Olivia plans to write posts on her father’s blog to keep people up to date with their progress. This can be viewed at www.learningspy.co.uk

Anyone wishing to sponsor family can do so online at www.livebelowtheline.com/me/rosiesisson