Friday: I step on the scale this morning and discover that I have lost four pounds - at one pound per day, this is too fast for a healthy weight loss.  I continue to feel low on energy and hungry at work, with headache off and on.  My work colleagues look concerned and ask after my health.

For dinner, I try a downtown drop in centre which offers a free meal.  I have had difficulty finding free meals, as most of the locations are not easy to reach or don't serve meals when I can get to them.  Many are at Out of the Cold locations in churches, which have just closed for the season. People have greater need for shelter in the winter months when the programs are open, but don't they eat all year round?

I arrive too late for the first sitting, so I stand in line with my ticket in hand with the other diners as a few snow flakes fall.  People talk about the price of housing, utilities and shoes, and share information about the death of a common acquaintance.  Someone hopes aloud that they are serving chicken, and is disappointed when reports from diners leaving indicate that it is pasta.  I share the feeling, as I have had pasta for my last three meals.

However, I am pleasantly surprised -  the drop in center meal is the best I have had this week, and I eat as much as I can, though the fullness is uncomfortable more than satisfying.  The pasta comes with fresh meatballs and salad (two items missing from my food bank diet), and ice cream with peaches is a treat for dessert - my first since picking up my hamper.  Everyone gets one meal, but milk, juice and coffee refills are plentiful, and some of the diners empty theirs into containers to take away.  As a bonus I get a box lunch as I leave, to add to my shrinking food supply at home.