Weighing lentils, rice, and beans down to the gram in their Welcome Bay kitchen, Dave and Jean Sales realise the full weight of the cause they're backing.

From October 6-10 the couple is participating in TEAR Fund's ‘Live Below the Line' when they will survive on food valued at no more than $2.25 per day.

Dave and Jean Sales weigh rice.

Participants gather sponsorship, with proceeds used to fight the multi-billion dollar human trafficking and sex slave industries.

'I get quite upset when I see children in poverty, children suffering,” says Dave, a retired pastor.

'You know, I compare it with my own children and my grandchildren, and I see there's such a need. Most of us that live in New Zealand live in the lap of luxury in comparison to a lot of third world countries.”

Dave and Jean have begun pricing up food such as lentils, beans, rice, and bread, and have been looking out for special pricing for food.

'We've priced them all up per gram, and measured out what we can afford on $2.25 a day.

'For instance, the other day we got some cans of beans at 65 cents. If we have half a can of beans each, that works out at 32 and half cents, and four cents for a slice of bread, so we can have a meal for 36 and a half cents.”

Dave says a cup of tea will cost them about four cents.

'But we'll share a tea bag between us, so it means it will only cost us two cents each.

'We've worked out things like that so that we can subsist on $2.25 a day.”

Dave locums as a chaplain at Tauranga Hospital and says his faith is a strong driving force behind tackling the challenge.

'I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. If I am going to profess to follow him, then I've got to walk after him, walk in the way he did, and that means not taking everything for myself – living for other people, in other words.”

Dave aims to raise $325 in sponsorship, plus donate the money he would have normally spent on food during the week.

Madina Turgieva of TEAR Fund says purchasing the recipe book ‘One Helping' is also a great way of engaging with this issue.

For more information visit www.tearfund.org.nz

To sponsor Dave (TEAR Fund) visit https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/fishy1) or Jean (Orphans Aid International) at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/nana