WFP Launches Free App For Smartphone Users To Help Feed Syrian Refugee Children
ROME – Smartphone users will now be able to help feed Syrian refugee children with a tap on their mobile phone thanks to the ShareTheMeal app, developed by the United Nations World Food Programme and launched in countries around the world today.
Users can participate whenever they want and wherever they are. They can “share” their meals while having dinner with friends or eating lunch at the office. Even a donation as small as 50 US cents will provide a child with vital nutrition for a day. Contributions will benefit Syrian refugee children in Jordan who are part of WFP’s school meals programme.
“The simple act of sharing a meal is how people all over the world come together,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. “This digital version of sharing a meal is a tangible way that Generation Zero Hunger can act to end hunger.”
The potential of ShareTheMeal is enormous: worldwide there are 20 times as many smartphone users as there are hungry children. In a ShareTheMeal test launch in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in June 2015, more than 120,000 users provided more than 1.7 million meals for schoolchildren in the southern African country of Lesotho.
“With the global launch, smartphone users in many countries across the world can support hungry children,” said Sebastian Stricker, who founded ShareTheMeal.
The free app will be available for iOS and Android from 12 November in app stores worldwide. It only takes 30 seconds to register and users can start sharing meals with hungry children and follow the impact of their donations.
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Please visit our media page at https://sharethemeal.org/en/media.html for background information, videos and photos. If you want to review the app prior to the launch please contact: media@sharethemeal.org. The app will be available for download at this link. Hi-res photos of the app are available for download here.
ShareTheMeal allows smartphone users to share their meals with hungry children via a free iOS and Android app. ShareTheMeal was founded in April 2014 and is an initiative of the WFP Innovation Accelerator.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Katharina Weltecke, WFP/Berlin, Mob. +49 172 4105677
Jane Howard, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 65132321, Mob. +39 346 7600521
Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44 20 72409001, Mob. +44 7968 008474
Bettina Luescher, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41 22 917 8564, Mob. + 41-79-842-8057
Gerald Bourke, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-646-5566909, Mob. +1-646 525 9982