Will click for food

Website offers easy way to feed hungry

During the holiday season, people seem to be more willing to donate their time, money and energy to charity causes and organizations that help to provide better living conditions for those less fortunate than themselves. But when it comes to giving on a daily basis, fewer people are willing to commit themselves to helping others. But now there is a simple, free and worthwhile way that we can each make a difference every day - and it is only a click away.

Every 3.6 seconds, someone in the world dies of hunger; this adds up to be about 24,000 people each day. Three fourths of these deaths are children under the age of five. Contrary to popular belief, famine or war cause relatively little starvation. Famine and war make up only 10 percent of hunger deaths. According to the United Nations World Food Program, the majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition; that is, people are dying simply because of poverty. Through a Website known as www.hungersite.org there is a way to help reduce these terrifying statistics.

Available to the public since this past July, The Hunger Site has already provided billions of cups of food to hungry people across the globe. Established by John Breen, a software programmer who wanted to help both educate and fight against hunger, this site is a way for people to donate food literally by clicking a button. By going to the site and clicking on the "Donate Free Food" link at the top of the page, you register with the site's computer server, which then adds your food donation to the day's totals. While the server does limit your donation to once a day, each day that you click the "Donate Free Food" button, you donate three cups of staple food such as maize, wheat or rice to a hungry person. Recent totals have been more than one million cups of donated food a day.

What is the catch, you ask? There isn't one. The site is completely cost-free and 100 percent of the proceeds raised go to the U.N. World Food Program, the world's largest food aid organization. From here the organization distributes food to people in 80 of the most hunger ridden and underdeveloped countries in the world. The money that pays for these food supplies comes from sponsors who pay half a cent per donation, adding up to one fourth of a cup of cooked food per click.

In exchange for their donations, the sponsors receive an advertisement recognizing their company as a food donator on the "Thank you for your donation" page, with a direct link to their Website. In return for their donation, hungersite.org offers sponsors a direct form of advertising. The Website is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Hungersite.org is a free and easy way to contribute to helping make the world just a little bit better each day. By bookmarking the main page of hungersite.org and visiting it daily, in only a few seconds you will make a free food donation that helps save lives. Think of all the time that you spend mindlessly on the Web - now this one click can save a life.

12-10-99