This initiative is calling for the $100 Healthy Food Supplement to the basic needs allowance for all adults receiving social assistance. Did you know more than 80 per cent of people living with Schizophrenia in Ontario rely on the Ontario Disability Support Program? They have to eat this way each and every day – so I figured I could handle a week.

It’s one day in and I’m already struggling. It’s amazing how much of my energy it takes thinking how I can stretch out my tiny basket of food. I’m so worried about running out. After a dinner of canned pumpkin and an egg, I found myself thinking: what if I get hungrier in the week? Then what?

The poor quality of the food – no fresh fruit and vegetables and canned products loaded with sodium -- left me sluggish and bloated. I feel like I no longer have control of my health or my life.

The social isolation was something I wasn’t expecting. Now when I watch other people eat I feel like an outsider looking in, like I’m not part of the community. How can people with schizophrenia cope with all this?  We live in society that stigmatizes mental illness, so people already feel like they don’t belong.

By the end of the day I was edgy and angry. I really can't imagine spending an entire life living like this.