The Importance of Video Games

On the island of Sheylan, conflict and unpredictable weather have brought the need for food assistance to an all-time high. Luckily, you can help! Sheylan is a virtual island in the United Nations World Food Program’s (WFP) interactive video game, Food Force. With six missions to teach about humanitarian crises and how to best deliver food assistance, children are getting an empowered sense that they can be part of the solution.

According to WFP, “Players are required to pilot helicopters on reconnaissance missions, airdrop high energy biscuits to internally displaced person (IDP) camps, negotiate with armed rebels on a food convoy run and use food aid to help rebuild villages.” They can even play each other for high scores. Yet the game isn’t all about flying planes and airdropping food. The site includes educational videos, an interactive hunger map, its own blog and much more.

Teachers can download and use the lesson plans provided by Food Force to teach their students about hunger and how it can be prevented. Additional information is provided for how individuals can help raise awareness and funds for WFP’s real missions. Organize a book sale, plan a carwash or even make a jellybean count! All of these simple ideas can make a huge difference in supporting WFP and its programs to alleviate global hunger. 

Whether it be Mission Two (centered around nutritional needs and costs), Mission Three (measuring the player’s skills at airdropping food to areas in need on Sheylan), or any other mission or educational opportunity, get on the website today to see how you can help in both the virtual world and the real world.

Please also feel free to contact our fundraising department [fundraising@friendsofwfp.org] if you’re interested in organizing a fundraising or awareness event at your school. They will be able to guide you and answer any questions you may have. Remember, it costs WFP just 25 cents to feed a child in school for a day!

Read a recent Voice of America article about Food Force and other video games like it.

Read more about opportunities for students and teachers on WFP’s website.

-Sara Thomson
 Outreach Intern
 Friends of WFP

“Serious” video game encourages players to aid the hungry

Though many video games emphasize violence or winning a sports game, some companies are beginning to market “serious” games that make education the main goal of the game.  Food Force, a game developed by the United Nation’s World Food Program, is one of the most popular “serious” video games on the market.  Players of “Food Force,” are challenged to locate food insecure or undernourished people of a fictional island and then get food to them.

Leigh Alexander, director for the video-game publication Gamasutra, recently spoke about the effectiveness of serious games.    “These are the games that are looking to be more than entertainment, but to engage the player,” said Alexander.  Food Force is an effective “serious” game because it incorporates aspects of traditional video games, short of explosions and gunshots, to maintain the interest of young gamers and educate them about world hunger issues and some tactics used to address them.  The ultimate goal of “serious” games such as Food Force is to motivate players to take action to address the problem in the real world. 

 

Read more about “serious”games.

 

Take action against world hunger.

 

Check out Food Force.

 

-Devinne Mack

Outreach Intern

Friends of WFP

Middle school students utilize Freerice.com

Friends of the World Food Program is a partner organization of freerice.com. FreeRice, created by John Breen of Bloomington, Indiana, is a website where users can answer questions in various academic disciplines. For each correct answer, the website donates ten grains of rice though the UN World Food Program to help end world hunger.  As part of Friends of WFP’s partnership with FreeRice, users who decide that they want to get more involved with the effort to end world hunger can click on the “How to Help” link which gets routed to the Outreach Department e-mail inbox. As the Outreach Intern, my day begins with responding to volunteer inquiry e-mails. I often receive e-mails from FreeRice users who want to help create more questions, or update the vocabulary on the website, or from teachers who want to know the logistics of spreading the word about FreeRice at their schools.  It is my job to direct inquiries to the appropriate parties.

 

I was very excited to read in yesterday’s Friends of WFP news clips e-mail that students at East Naples Middle School in Naples, Florida are regular users of FreeRice. Eighth grade language arts teacher, Karen Soffin, read an article about Mr. Breen in People magazine, and decided that the concept of the website fit the theme of “silent heroes.”  As a result, Soffin decided to incorporate FreeRice into her students’ studies. On the regular use of FreeRice Soffin said, “The program allows the students to review math and language arts and they are feeding other people around the world, so there is an intrinsic reward.”

 

Students in all grade levels at East Naples Middle School are now regular users of the website. Students keep track of the number of grains of rice that they have earned, and the school’s National Junior Honor Society collects monthly totals and puts them on a bulletin board for everyone to see. In January alone, the school earned 6 million grains of rice which is enough to feed a little bit more than 312 people for a day. Kudos to the efforts of students at East Naples Middle School. I am happy to hear that at least one school has incorporated FreeRice into their curriculum.

 

Read more about the efforts of the eighth graders at East Naples Middle School.

 

Check out FreeRice for yourself.  

 

-Devinne Mack

Outreach Intern

Friends of WFP