By Bridget Cook
TWO Cranbourne teenagers will be giving up everyday essentials – food and furniture – all in the name of a good cause this weekend.
19-year-old Emily Howlett is giving up furniture and her friend Sarah Barker, 19, is giving up food over the weekend for World Vision’s 40 Hour Famine.
The fund-raiser is one of Australia’s biggest youth events and each year inspires a new generation of young people to help break the cycle of poverty.
Participants give up something important to them for 40 hours to raise awareness and funds to fight global hunger.
Ms Howlett gave up food last year for the 40 Hour Famine, but due to her health at the time it was too hard on her body.
“This year I still wanted to get involved and do something to help so I decided to take a different spin on it and give up furniture,” she said.
“I thought furniture would be interesting and I chose it because I wanted to challenge myself and see how reliant on furniture I actually am.”
Ms Howlett said she was lucky that her bedroom flood was carpet.
“I think the hardest to go without will be the couch maybe,” she said.
“You’d think bed, but I’ll be asleep most of that time and won’t even know.
“I’ll have to be really conscious of my actions to make sure I don’t forget and sit down on the couch or at the table out of habit.”
This weekend will be Ms Barker’s first time doing the fund-raiser.
“I had previously thought about doing the 40 Hour Famine, however I was a little afraid that it would be too much of a challenge for me,” Ms Barker said.
“At the beginning of this year, I completely changed my lifestyle and lost 15kg by exercising and changing my diet.
“Losing the weight gave me the confidence to sign up to the 40 Hour Famine, and to help make a difference to those who are not as lucky as we are.”
And while you might think that chocolate and junk food would be the hardest for Ms Barker to give up, she said it would actually be fruit.
“Honestly, I think going without all food will be very difficult,” she said.
“But I’ll miss eating fruit the most. I have at least two to three pieces of fruit every day, so going without it will be extremely tough.
“My biggest challenge will be working on Saturday, as I work around food and that normally makes me hungry.
“However I have faith that I will definitely get through it.”
Ms Barker has come up with some strategies to help get through the challenge.
“My strategies to help me get through the 40 Hour Famine is to just keep myself as busy as possible, and I plan on carb loading for the few days before it,” she said.
“And of course stocking up on barley sugar, tea, juice and water.”
Both girls encouraged others to get involved.
“It’s not always food or furniture you have to give up, you can give up any little thing you chose,” Ms Howlett said.
“It could even be shopping, or chocolate and it’s only for 40 hours of your life and it feels great to know you’re helping make a difference.”
Ms Barker said it was important for people to realise how incredibly lucky and fortunate we were simply to have food on our tables every day, clothes on our backs and a roof over our heads.
“Sometimes, I think people take the little luxuries like food, social media, the internet and furniture for granted and it’s important to be reminded of those who are not as fortunate as we are,” she said.
To donate to Ms Howlett visit http://40hf.com/Emilyhowlett or to donate to Ms Barker visit http://40hf.com/sarahbarker92.