Skip to main content

Free Rice

Nothing is really free, is it? Somebody has to pay for everything that changes hands whether it's lunch or health care or rice given to the needy.

Poverty.com has a sister site—freerice.com. Because nothing is free, the sponsors have come up with a gimmick—a vocabulary quiz. As you play, with each correct answer, the sponsors whose ads run along the bottom of the screen donate ten grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Ten grains doesn't sound like much by itself, but the site generates nearly 200,000,000 grains a day. The power of words.

At first I, wasn't sure what to make of the thing. I was almost immediately addicted to the quiz, but I had questions about the program. The FAQ page answered two of them right off the bat.
If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people

Does FreeRice make any money from this?

FreeRice and its sister site Poverty.com have not made a penny from this. Nor does it cost us much, as our only significant expense is our servers.
So, during this week of being thankful for our relative bounty, let's all play FreeRice and spread some of that bounty around the world.

Comments

dive said…
Cool, Robyn.
I'll head over there right now.
That's a good thing for post Thanksgiving-binge, fat-laden Americans to do.
I hope you and the family had a good Thanksgiving and filled yourseves with turkey and good cheer.
10:13 AM
dive said…
Wow! That's fun.
I just donated 500 grains of rice and got to level 47 while disposing of a cup of green tea.
I'm hooked!
10:20 AM
Anonymous said…
Ok Robyn, I'll play! Good for you for bringing this to our attention.
5:06 PM
Gina said…
I've played before, but alas, could only get to a level 45. Damn nouns/names of things that I don't know!
12:20 AM
Mrs. G. said…
This is a cool site where I have learned many new vocabulary words. I think I'll go play again.
4:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Am I Stupid, or What?

In two weeks, I will climb up into a charter bus, take my assigned seat, and ride 22 hours straight to Orlando, Florida. I will be a chaperon with the high school marching band, which will perform at Disney's Magic Kingdom--me and 180 people on four big buses for seven days. We will travel together, eat together, play together, fall down exhausted together--and after 22 hours, I suspect stink to high heaven together. Because of the crazy schedule, we will leave Ohio at 6 pm, travel all night and most of the next day, and spend several hours at MGM Studios before ending up at the hotel sometime after 7 pm. After I check in with the eight girls I am to supervise, I intend to shower and shower and shower. I intend to wear clean clothes and socks and brush my teeth until my toothbrush wears out. Of all the things I could be concerned about on this trip, being dirty seems to weigh heaviest on my mind. One of my eight charges could run off and do bad things with her boyfriend, but I'...
21 comments
Read more

No More Mr. Nice Guy

It's good to be a nice person--to say nice things, to do nice things, to write nice things--but I declare an end to the use of the word nice. Nice is what you say when you can't think of any other adjective. Someone shows you a picture of their back yard--that's nice. Someone tells you about their afternoon adventure--that's nice. Or someone describes their childhood in great detail and sometimes with painstaking effort--that's nice. It's a lazy word, and it's non-descriptive. Nice is like mashed potatoes with noodles and chicken gravy all in a big pile on one plate with some canned corn for garnish. Everything is the same color and texture and base substance--starch (this is a favorite Amish dish). Nice is like a partly cloudy day in April when outside feels like inside, and you can't tell a difference between the lighting and the temperature of your living room and the lighting and temperature of your front yard. Nice is a glass of lukewarm water. ...
20 comments
Read more

An Offending Pile

So, I'm standing in my living room letting my mind wander for a minute or two as I stare out the window and watch the day go by, and I see my neighbors walking their dogs down the street. They are nice neighbors who are always friendly and responsible with their property. That is to say they aren't like the other neighbors who heap rubbish behind their house like Ma and Pa Kettle and let their dogs bark for thirty minutes at a time . Anyway, I see the nice people walking their dogs, a big golden retriever who is as sweet as can be and as dumb as a post—he once ate a sock and nearly died before it was surgically removed—and a new golden retriever puppy. Then I see Neighbor Wife suddenly run down the street with the big dog. Then I see Neighbor Husband stopped in front of my house with the puppy on its leash. And then I see the puppy taking a huge dump in my grass. Let me tell you, that is not done in this town unless the dog owner has a plastic bag handy and is ready to pick up ...
16 comments
Read more