Most college students know how to multi-task. With homework, part-time jobsand friends to balance, it’s a common skill.
Practicing vocabulary and fighting world hunger, though, may not seem like two things one could do at the same time.
Freerice.com is a Web site that is bringing the two tasks together with the help of sponsors like Reader’s Digest, Liz Claiborne and Tobisha. The sponsors donate money to the United Nations World Food Program each time a visitor successfully picks a synonym in the game.
As one answers questions correctly, the words get increasing difficult. Asone misses questions, the vocabulary gets easier.
For each correct answer, FreeRice donates enough money for ten grains ofrice to the United Nations World Food Program. To put that number inperspective, a metric ton (2200 pounds) of rice costs about $500, accordingto riceonline.com. If there are approximately 1000 grains to a pound ofrice, then each correct answer is worth a little less than a quarter of apenny.
If someone dominates the quiz, answering a question correctly every threeseconds for an hour, they will have secured about $2.70 worth of foodfor the world’s impoverished.
But $2.70 is less than minimum wage. Would the world be better served ifthat person spent the hour working a minimum wage job and then donated justa portion of his or her earnings to fight hunger?
That’s not the right way to look at the site, says Everett Warren, asophomore in biology.
“The thing you have to consider is that a good vocabulary itself is avaluable thing,” he said. “That’s as true for someone making minimum wage asit is for someone making a million dollars a year. If you’re seriouslytrying to learn new words as you play, then time spent playing the game istime well spent.”
The Freerice Web site argues it’s difficult to play the game and not learnnew words. Although it has fifty levels, the site calls anything above levelforty-eight “rare.”
“When I’m playing, I keep a second window open to dictionary.com,” Warren said. “I always learn new words. Helping the hungry is just a nicelittle bonus. It’s really amazing and quite noble what the site has done,creating a win-win-win situation by bringing together the interests ofusers, the hungry and corporate sponsors.”
Freerice displays small advertisements from its sponsors below eachquestion. However, it’s impossible to know if FreeRice charges more for adsthan it spends on rice. The site has no contact phone number or e-mailaddress, although it is linked to a sister site: poverty.com.
Poverty.com doesn’t display contact information either. Without a political,religious or corporate affiliation, the site was started in January 2007 bya private individual named John Breen.
According to an article from the PR Newswire, Breen is a 49-year-old computerprogrammer from Indiana. In 1999, he founded the Internet’s firstclick-to-donate site, the Hunger Site, which one a Webby Award in 2000.
Webby Awards are given annually to what a panel of judges determines are”the world’s best Web sites.”
In its first year, the Hunger Site donated over 3000 metric tons of food tothe UN World Food Program.
How does Freerice compare? Up for less than a month so far, the site hasalready raised over 300 metric tons of rice, assuming 1,000 grains per pound. If Freerice maintains its daily grain totals of about 50 million it will donate over 8,000 metric tons of rice in the next year.
