Article content

On Tuesday morning, Franco Savoia will begin his daily routine with money on his mind, knowing he’ll have just $7 to stretch across the next 24 hours.

Savoia is the executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, one of the groups behind an effort to raise awareness of the day-to-day hurdles facing the 122,000 Calgarians living in poverty. This month, they are asking residents to take the $7 A Day Challenge. That’s the amount they say is left in the pockets of those low-income individuals once basic necessities such as rent and bills are covered.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Group challenges Calgarians to live off $7 a day in bid to raise awareness of poverty Back to video

Savoia can already anticipate how tough it might be to stick to the confines of that $7. After a typical morning coffee, that leaves about $5 for the rest of the day.

“If you all of a sudden have a big headache and you don’t have any Tylenol with you, you might have to go and buy Tylenol, and you might not be able to afford it, because you’ve already spent your money on coffee,” he said.