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Google Play helps fight hunger on World Food Day, donates proceeds

Google Play World Food Day
Image used with permission by copyright holder
In honor of World Food Day on Monday, October 16, Google Play launched a week-long campaign to raise funds and awareness for the cause. Google Play will donate 100 percent of revenue — made from in-app purchases in the “Apps and Games Against Hunger” collection — to World Food Program USA.

The UN World Food Programme consists of an international community that is committed to not only ending hunger but achieving food security and improved nutrition by 2030. While we do grow enough food to feed every human being on the planet, 815 million people still go to bed hungry every day.

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You have the option to choose from 12 different popular apps and games — available in North America and South America. From Monday until October 21, all proceeds from designated in-app purchases made from the “Apps and Games Against Hunger” collection will be donated. Among the list include Dragon City, Sling Kong, Cooking Fever, and more.

Within the collection is ShareTheMeal – Help children, a charity app by the WFP. Using your smartphone, you can help feed a child with a 50 cent donation at a time. The app launched almost two years ago and garnered 81,000 new users within only a few days of being live.

At the time, the beneficiaries of the donations were Syrian refugee children living in Jordan. The children received necessary and vital nutrition each day, as part of WFP’s school meals program. In trial runs, ShareTheMeal had proven to be extremely effective — providing more than 1.7 millions meals for children in Lesotho throughout the month of June 2015 alone.

The app also encourages transparency when it comes to giving and users can follow progress within the app as well as track where their donations are going. As part of its most recent update, the app now includes a feature called Camera Giving — which takes a photo of your food, places a #ShareTheMeal filter, and allows you to share your meal.

With this current campaign, Google Play aims to fight hunger, one app at a time while simultaneously bringing attention to a serious issue. World Food Program USA is only one branch of contributors who support WPF and its mission to feed families in need across the globe.

Brenda Stolyar
Former Digital Trends Contributor
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