Freerice: the game that feeds the world

This small cereal, rich in vitamins and minerals, is the single most important staple food in the world, providing up to 1/3 of calories in an average diet. It is only natural that rice would play a crucial role as one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations: Zero hunger.

Rice feeds over 3500 million people every day, and its consumption is bound to increase by 25% over the next 25 years. But fighting hunger also means reducing food waste and ensuring a steady supply of food to the populations currently at higher risk. It is vital to act and to help. Enter the Freerice project.

Freerice is an interactive trivia game everyone can play. It puts knowledge to the test with questions about several topics. Besides being an excellent mental exercise, Freerice allows players to raise grains of rice for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Developed by the WFP, Freerice helps to fight hunger, involving the entire world in this cause.

Between 2010 and 2022, Freerice helped raise over 210,000 million rice grains – the equivalent to more than 1.41 million dollars. In 2022 alone, 8 million players chipped in to end world hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all forms.

You can play as a single player, without signing in to the website, or as a group, after signing in. However, to track the rice grains raised so far, you need to create an account – which is free.

There are several categories and subcategories to choose from, such as art and culture, history, food and sustainability, languages, and maths and science, as well as various levels of difficulty. Each correct answer raises 10 grains of rice, and there isn’t a time limit. So, be it as a single player or as a group, each answer will make a difference.

Truth be told, you are not exactly raising actual rice grains. Freerice has the support of private investors that, for each correct answer, donate the monetary equivalent to 10 grains of rice. The total amount raised is then directed to the WFP and used to respond to humanitarian emergencies in over 120 countries, like Afghanistan, Ethiopia and, more recently, Ukraine.

Founded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian organisation in the world providing food assistance in crisis situations. The WFP also promotes food security and works directly with various vulnerable communities towards healthy diets and improved nutrition. Year after year, the WFP has already provided more 15 000 million meals to 100 million people.

The WFP is also the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, saving lives in crisis situations, and “using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change”. In 2020, the WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition of the organisation’s key role in social solidarity.

Freerice is one of the tools the WFP uses to encourage the world population to help the more than 120 countries and territories it aids interactively. The programme deploys many life-saving strategies such as school meal donations, emergency relief, supporting women at risk (over half the recipients of donated food) and support to small-scale farmers.

Let’s play Freerice! Spread the word to your friends and family, join the competition and contribute to this big goal. Whatever the result, helping out is always a win.