Wednesday, January 14, 2009

"Surprisingly Simple" challenge!

EilaJean has challenged all her readers to post this on their blog today. Seems there is a "surprisingly simply" way to help with world hunger. Just a simple click and money will be donated to the Hunger Site. So, because I'm one of her readers and because I believe we should all try to help where we can (and because I love to do challenges) I'm going to paste her info here on how YOU, too, can help stop world hunger. Doesn't cost you a penny, just a moment of your time each and every day. Put it on your homepage, put it in your favorites, paste a sticky note at the top of your computer; whatever you have to do to remind yourself that someone needs your "click" today!


The link is below - if you would like to head over now and check it out...
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1

(quote:EilaJean) "This is the post on Snopes where I checked out the validity of it... I pasted it in the blog so you could read it yourself. So now I have done one more thing to make the world a little better place... and there are still 11 1/2 months left in 2009. WOO HOO! I really do hope you will check it out... do it, and pass it on."

snopes.com: The Hunger Site http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp

The Hunger Site Claim: You can direct money to hunger relief simply by clicking a button on a website.Status: True.Origins: Over the last few years we've seen a plethora of altruistic appeals circulate on the Internet, each one claiming that you could donate money to a worthy cause or right some terrible injustice — at no cost to you — merely by taking some simple action, such as forwarding an e-mail message. (See our Jessica Mydek page for one example.)

All of these messages were hoaxes — until The Hunger Site came along. At The Hunger Site, you can "donate" money to hunger relief simply by clicking a button. How? The Hunger Site, the creation of John Breen, a 42-year-old computer programmer fromBloomington, Indiana, was funded by various companies who sponsored the site for a day. Every sponsor donated the approximate cost of 1/4 of a cup of food to the United Nations' World Food Program for each user who clicks on the site during the day. (If multiple companies were sponsoring the site, the amount of food donated was multiplied by the number of sponsors.) Breen created the site in June 1999 as a personal project to help deal with hunger in developing countries, and the response was soon so overwhelming that he spent most of his time administering the site even though he received no income, loans, grants, or donations to compensate him for his time and effort or pay his expenses. Eventually The Hunger Site became part of GreaterGood.com, a shopping portal where customers could direct up to 15% of the cost of every purchase to causes they selected. GreaterGood.com ceased operations in July 2001, and The Hunger Site was temporarily shut down until CharityUSA.com took over its operations a few weeks later.

Other sites also offer similar means for visitors to aid various charities:

l Animal Rescue Site
l The Breast Cancer Site

Additional Information:

World Food Program
The Hunger Site (World Food Program)http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp?
print=y (1 of 2)1/13/2009 9:40:19 AM

snopes.com: The Hunger Site
World Food Program

The Hunger Site press release (World Food Program)
Last updated: 8 October 2007
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com. Sources Sources:Kirby, Carrie. "Millions Eat Because People Click a Button."San Francisco Chronicle. 20 December 1999. Rowe, Peter. "Fighting Hunger with the Click of a Button."The San Diego Union-Tribune. 15 July 1999 (p. E1).
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp?
print=y (2 of 2)1/13/2009 9:40:19 AM

2 comments:

eilajean said...

Hi Melanie,

Thanks for posting this. A couple things... there are other tabs at the top of the page. Each one of them supports a different cause... and you can see the results of what has been given away over the year. You can have a few tabs on your main window when you open your browser. For example, I have my Myspace page, My family Yahoo group page, My blog, the hunger site, and Flickr. So when I open Internet explorer, each of these sites is opened. So you don't have to change your homepage, just add to it - if that makes sense.

I watched American Idol last nigt, thank you very much - now I have another show to add to my DVR. It was good, and Simon was surprisingly mellow.

Have a great day over yonder in WV. I have been through your fin state many times.

eila

eilajean said...

I know what you mean about finding the time. The beauty of our DVR is I can set priorites - record 2 things at once - while watching something I recorded previously... It has worked out pretty well so far. It holds 150 hours, so you just watch when you feel like it. It is like the old VCR days, but easier. We live in the middle of nowhre, so there is no cable. We use Dish Network - mostly because they will give us our local channels. Direct TV won't. Whe nyou get the networks from them, you get New York and LA - I can do without their news - thank you very much! LOL

Have a great day lady, Nice chatting with you.

eila