WeFeedback – sharing food, changing lives

What was life like before Twitter? There was (and is) Facebook and numerous other social networking platforms, but nothing seems to break the news, dish out the deals, the heartbreak, the danger and the joy faster and with more urgency than Twitter.

I can’t begin to imagine what life was like with just the printed newspaper and evening news on the telly.

(I suspect my husband would say it was a lot more peaceful).

Luckily, and in some cases not so luckily, we don’t have to ponder that much. It’s almost guaranteed, that if the world was to end in the next ten minutes, and the alien ship started to obliterate our cousins Stateside, we’d read the tweets, and in the infamous words of every cartoon baddie, we’d literally “Prepare to die!”.

WeFeedback – what’s that about?

But, I digress. Last week I read a tweet by Kaka, the famous Brazilian and Real Madrid footballer (you’ve probably seen his very pretty face on a Sony billboard where you live):

“feeding 900 hungry children with the cost of my favorite meal. How many can YOU feed? #wefeedback http://tinyurl.com/6fvlpld “

My interest piqued. I clicked on it and am so very glad I did.

Grilled squid, quinoa & nectarine salad

WeFeedback is an initiative of the United Nation’s World Food Programme and the world’s largest community for sharing food and changing lives.

Wefeedback employs a simple and user freindly web site, whereby the users are invited to involve their social networks in the fight against hunger.

Quite simply, you type in your dinner (or any meal) of choice and the price of a portion, for example, an ostrich burger at R50. The nifty calculator works out how many children you could feed with this. You’re then invited to donate it (or multiples of this amount). Payment is quick and easy- as fast as any Amazon or Kalahari transaction, with zero guilt factor.

(Click here if you’re curious and can’t bear to wait till the end!)

WeFeedback encourages you to share this with your own networks to amplify the effect and help to spread the news.

I’m proud to add, a local lass Abby Ravera has been instrumental in setting up and building WeFeedback’s social media structure.

The site is in it’s infancy, and is being continuously modified with the users in mind, but already over 9600 children have been fed as I write this!

In their own words:

“We’re taking a new approach to fighting hunger that is social, fun and focused on the positive. We believe food is an amazing force: It is a giver of life, a canvas for creativity and a catalyst for our social lives. If together we can harness the exuberance, creativity and sense of identity people associate with food, we can tap into a powerful positive force for change.

That’s why the WeFeedback community is focused on a common love of food and the possibilities it creates to improve lives. If we can do that, then we can do a world of good – literally.”

What can you do today?

All of us, cooks, food and wine bloggers, food aficionados, eaters and lovers of yum probably agree that what we get to enjoy on a regular (sometimes daily basis), is such a unique privilege.

You’ve probably also experienced that food and drink shared, is all the more pleasurable.

This is a little something we can do, effortlessly, to spread the joy that food brings.  A hungry child is hard to educate and one portion of Kaka’s beans and rice at ZAR 35 will feed 20 children!

I have often heard people saying they’d like their governments to do more, or would like to do something but have no time to spare or are too tired after having to take care of their own households or that times are tight.

There is no donation too small and spreading the word is one of the greatest acts of kindness you can show.

I’m inviting South African food bloggers and lovers of food everywhere, to join me in supporting Wefeebfack to help to end hunger in a very real way

Click here to get started.

Post script

I am conceptualising a plan to host charity dinners and cook-a-longs in aid of Wefeedback and help2read (my primary charity-please visit their site for info on the wonderful work being done in aiding children with literacy locally). If you are interested/ have any suggestions, please contact me in the comments section or via the contact form on the blog.

WeFeedback featured us on the things we as food bloggers and food lovers could do  to help as well as the video of the dinner we hosted on 4 March 2011.