A Fun Website that Helps Others Too

Here is a Win-Win website that I hope you try! It's called FreeRice.com Here's how you play:

You're presented with a vocabulary word and four possible definitions. Click on the correct definition, and you are then given another word. And so on. Each correct answer is worth 20 grains of rice.

How much do you need to play? Well, according to the site, there are approximately 48 grains of rice in a gram, and a rough rule of thumb is that one person needs approximately 400 grams of rice (mixed with other foods) per day for sustenance. This works out to 400 grams x 48 grains/gram = 19,200 grains of rice per day. If you're earning 20 grains per correct answer, you *only* need to answer 960 questions right to feed one person for one day!

OK, you probably won't get to do that many problems, but that's OK. You, along with thousands of others all playing, can still make a significant dent in world hunger while improving your vocabulary :-)

The rice is earned like this (from the FAQs on the website): When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people...FreeRice does not make any money from this. FreeRice is simply a website committed to the cause of ending hunger around the world. While it is not a registered non-profit organization, FreeRice is run entirely for free and at no profit. All money (100%) raised by the site goes to the UN World Food Program to help feed the hungry. Sponsors make all payments to the UN World Food Program directly.

These vocabulary words are hard! Many weren't even in my pocket Merriam-Webster I keep near my computer (I'm not above cheating here :-) The program is good too, because if you get a word wrong it will reappear in a few more questions, allowing you to remember what it was.

The site is now adding other categories such as geography, math, and languages, but I haven't tried those yet. Still, it's fun to play, and heck, you're helping others AND improving your mind at the same time! Sounds pretty good to me.