World Food Program USA & Freerice: How Answering Question Fights World Hunger

How a trivia game can help solve world hunger and how can teachers implement this into the classroom to keep students engaged, while fighting global issues.

By Sean | February 2026 | Global Goals Project

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Why I Chose This Tool

While I was going over the PACIE Global Educator Toolkit spreadsheet, I came across World Food Program USA (WFP USA) under the "Action Opportunities" section. I clicked the link to https://wfpusa.org/get-involved/freerice, which let to the Freerice page. Freerice is a free trivia game run by the United Nations World Food Programme where a group of sponsors donates the cash equivalent of 10 grains of rice for every question you answer correctly. This is all in an effort to relive the issue of world hunger

This immediately caught my attention due to the interesting concept of anybody being able to answer these questions and raise money for people in need. In addition to this, I am working on a UN Sustainable Development Goals project, and I've been focusing specifically on SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. While this program focuses on hunger which is SDG 2, SDG 3 is deeply intertwined with hunger for obvious reasons. 

What made WFP USA and Freerice stand out among the other tools listed is the combination of education and accessibility. This education tool allows students to directly help while gaining more insight into the issues that are plaguing the world. If I were to implement this in the classroom I would assign it as a semester long challenge across the classroom and award the top winners. 

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Freerice: How It Works

1. Pick a category. Freerice offers trivia across a wide range of subjects, including: vocabulary, human anatomy, world landmarks, geography, math, science, art and culture, famous quotations, food and sustainability, languages, history, and more. You can set your difficulty to easy, normal, or hard.
2. Answer questions. For every right answer, private sponsors donate the cash equivalent of 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme.
3. Watch the bowl fill up. The game uses a visual rice bowl that fills as you answer correctly, making the impact tangible and motivating.
4. Track and compete. You can create a free account to track your total, form groups (perfect for classrooms), view leaderboards, earn badges, and challenge friends.

Publicized Statistics

• 224+ billion grains of rice raised since 2007
• 8 million players per year
• 120+ countries where WFP operates
• 100% of Freerice funds go to WFP

Freerice History

Freerice was originally created in 2007 by John Breen, an American computer programmer who built it as a way to help his son study for college entrance exams while doing something good. Breen donated the platform to the World Food Programme in 2009. It has since evolved into a global community tool used by millions of students, teachers, and organizations worldwide.