How many servings are in 500 grains of rice? A cup contains
about 1000 grains and a serving size is ¼ cup. That means 500 grains is ½ cup
or two servings. You may be wondering why I’m giving you the vital statistics
on rice. It isn’t because water was spilled on my computer and I put it in a
rice bath, which I did and it didn’t work. It is because in the past 10 minutes,
I provided a serving of rice for two people by sitting in my office and
practicing my vocabulary. Let me explain about the connection of rice,
vocabulary and a computer programmer.
Computer programmer, John Breen was distressed by the
statistics that about 21,000 people die every day
of hunger or hunger-related causes. According to the United Nations, that is
one person every four seconds. Sadly, it is children who die most often.
Yet, he discovered that there is plenty
of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are
trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish
themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick.
This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even
poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them
and their families.
John wanted to do something about it. In October 2007, he
started a website called Free Rice. It
works by playing a vocabulary game. A word is given with four choices of what
it means. For every correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated.
Today’s gift for 50 right answers was 500 grains of rice. It
is rather addicting. After playing at level four for a while, I chose level 15.
On the inaugural day of the website, the United Nations’
World Food Programme (WFP) donated a measly 830 grains of rice. As of today,
over 82 billion grains have been given away to over 87 million people in 78
countries. It is funded by advertisers on the website.
It felt good to be able to feed the hungry by doing
something fun and intellectual. So, if you ever get quizzed on how many grains
of rice is in a serving, you can answer the question and feed needy people with
your answer.
In Giving,
Robin
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