ShareTheMeal: WFP app reaches 200 million meals milestone
Gaza emergency: support ShareTheMeal’s fundraising campaign.
The principle is simple: give what you can – whether it’s one meal or a year of meals – and know that it makes a difference.
In US dollars, a meal supplied by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) costs around 80 cents – less than the price of a packet of chewing gum.
It’s no wonder that since its launch in 2015, ShareTheMeal’s come such a long way. Now, the official donation app of WFP’s reached a milestone: 200 million meals served – welcome news as the organization responds to the worst hunger crisis in modern history.
In 2023, WFP needs US$23.5 billion to assist people in 177.4 million people in 78 countries. ShareTheMeal allows users to seamlessly donate life-saving food to children and families around the world.
By choosing a goal (from Yemen to Nigeria, and of course, Palestine) and giving as little as US$0.80, users help fund school feeding initiatives, nutrition support, resilience-building, sustainable livelihoods and emergency assistance.
With a community of millions of users (spanning 14 languages, 52 currencies and more than 200 countries), 105 goals complete, and now a 200 million eal milestone, let’s take a look at ShareTheMeal’s impact.
Life-saving support in emergencies
When crises strike, donations offer a lifeline to communities in desperate need. In 2022, ShareTheMeal launched a fundraising goal for countries in the Horn of Africa, where over 20 million people were plunged into hunger due to four consecutive failed rainy seasons.
The app’s community of donors raised over 1 million meals for families in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia – this included cash assistance for pastoralists to buy food for themselves and fodder for their livestock.
In February 2022, at the start of the conflict in Ukraine, ShareTheMeal moved quickly to support WFP operations and the people affected, including women and children who sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
The war caused one of the fastest forced population movements since the Second World War. To date, ShareTheMeal users have shared over 5.5 million meals (and counting!) with families in Ukraine.
WFP and ShareTheMeal are also supporting people affected by the ongoing crisis in Palestine. Nearly the entire population of Gaza – around 2.2 million people – now need urgent food assistance.
Over 7.56 million meals have been shared with Palestine by the ShareTheMeal community so far.
Boosting education for children
In South Sudan, where adult literacy rates are among the lowest in the world, 2.8 million children – 53 percent of them girls – are out of school. The ShareTheMeal community raised over 500,000 meals in 2022, providing children in South Sudan with tasty, nutritious meals, helping increase students’ attendance and improve nutrition.
Globally, ShareTheMeal supports school meals programme because being able to look forward to food at school means more and more children will attend class – this unlocks the benefits of good health, better learning and opportunities down the line.
Similarly, almost 300,000 meals have been shared with children in Colombia – particularly in indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities – to encourage them to stay in school while supporting community livelihoods. You can find out more and start sharing meals with children in Colombia here.
Supporting climate-change response
The link between climate change and food security is becoming more evident – that’s why ShareTheMeal is promoting fundraising goals that champion environmental sustainability.
For example in Egypt, where small farmers live off an average annual income of US$300, are often forced to overuse water and fertilizers to get crops to grow. But the 370,000 meals shared so far are helping train farmers in modern land and water management which has already increased productivity by 40 percent.
And did you know there is a 20 to 30 percent projected increase in agricultural output when women have access to the same resources as men?
In Rwanda, Peru, and Zambia shared meals (more 300,000 of them!) are not only helping female farmer progress their livelihoods, but also providing women with loans, financial training, and supplies such as seeds, herbicides and fertilizers to help grow their businesses (Learn more about it here).
ShareTheMeal's 200 million meals milestone is a powerful reminder that every meal shared is not only a gesture of generosity, but also a step towards a more sustainable and equitable future.