Some worrying news recently — World Vision has been forced to cut aid for 1.5 million people due to rising food costs. Fortunately other organizations, such as the United Nations World Food Program, continue to work very hard to feed those who are truly hungry. So here's what I'm thinking — maybe we could do a little bit here towards helping to feed others, through the UN World Food Program's Free Rice website. It's actually a vocabulary game with a twist — for each word that you get the correct definition, 20 grains of rice are donated to the World Food Program (the rice is paid for by the advertisers on the website). Is it worth it? From the WFP site: "Clicks on the FreeRice vocabulary game have already translated into WFP food rations for over 20,000 refugees from Myanmar who are sheltering in Bangladesh. Pregnant women in Cambodia, schoolchildren in Uganda and Bhutanese refugees in Nepal are also receiving rice thanks to the award-winning site." You can find Free Rice here.
And — to encourage you even more — for today only I will happily volunteer to donate 500 grains of rice for each comment left on this post by 12:00 midnight, on top of my regular Free Rice vocabulary workout. I really appreciate the support and comments that I get from you all, and this is one way I can truly say thank you. So say hello (or more, if you like) and help give someone in need a full tummy, too.
Note: The lovely photo above is from the San Lorenzo's Kitchen blog. It's a bowl of delicious baked lemon risotto, and (as Sara notes on the blog) perfect as a dessert or for breakfast. You can find the recipe here.
Update: Two thousand grains of rice were donated today! Big thanks to Marie and Diana for contributing to this worthy cause.