The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on November 12 launched a new smartphone app called 'Share The Meal' to fight global hunger over a smartphone. The app, available on both Android and iOS for free, lets you choose a food basket with just 50 cents providing 'vital nutrition' to a child per day to start with and five more options going up to feeding a child for one year. The WFP is currently working to providing meals to 20,000 Syrian children in refugee camps in Jordan for one complete year. The WFP’s food programme says it provides food depending on the ground situation, so anything ranging from ‘fortified biscuits’ to ‘porridge, maize with beans or peas’ is on the platter for the children. The app also shows a real-time counter of the number of meals shared and the progress they made in reaching the target. WFP claims to have shared over 2.7 million meals and is inching close to 50 per cent of the objective in 10 odd days. The USP of the app is: pegging the number at half-a-dollar (US dollar). It attracts every user with its low average value. The direct value in money goes in feeding the children and the operational costs are said to managed by grants to WPF and donations from the business community and philanthropists. In an e-mail interview, Advisor Business Innovation at United Nations World Food Programme and Share the Meal founder, Sebastian Stricker explains how and what his brainchild has accomplished: How and when did you come up with this idea of using smartphones to fight hunger? Working for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) I am convinced, that a smartphone app is the perfect opportunity to engage more people worldwide in ending hunger. The potential is huge since smartphone users outnumber hungry children 20 to one. I saw in the app that right now the ShareTheMeal (STM) is raising funds to 'Supporting Syrian Refugees', will you keep updating the crises zones and target locations according to ground situations to tackle priorities? WFP's Syria operation is one of the largest and most complex in the world. WFP must raise US$25 million each week to meet the basic food needs of people affected by the conflict. STM provides a unique means for people around the globe to engage with WFP. In the future, smartphone users will be able to use the app to contribute to additional WFP operations around the world - wherever our help is needed most. Is STM planning for crowd funding in other domains or sectors like healthcare, education too? STM is WFP's first awareness-raising app. Free to download; the app is a pioneering way for people to join our efforts in creating a world with zero hunger. This is what we are aiming for. When donations are going for a major cause, especially through a UN forum, don't you think the taxation issues could be resolved through a consensus from all UN members at least? That's an interesting aspect but not on STM's agenda currently. When paying quickly is the idea behind the app, don't you want to put in place more payment options like Google Play credit or something? Currently, we offer payments via credit card and Paypal. Can you be more specific about 'transparency' in amount going to the cause? I'm sure the app users would more likely be interested and convinced to make more donations if they know where and how their money is going. The community can follow the progress in the app and see how many meals have been shared. We cannot match individual gifts to individual children, but are working on solutions to provide more direct feedback. However, we want to ensure this doesn't affect our operation. What is the time frame you have decided or have projected to tackle or stabilise the hunger problem? By using STM people are joining a community that firmly believes that zero hunger is achievable within our lifetime. How did you come up with number-of-meals-to-one-child metric as opposed to number-of-children-covered-in-one-donation basket? Don't you think the latter is more accomplishing from a donor's point of view? Our users especially like the fact that through their donation they are supporting a child for a day. STM is a way for WFP to engage a new generation of individuals in our mission and our work. The app also makes donating more social - many users in the app decide to connect their friends through Facebook and Twitter.
