By Julia Boyle

THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

What if you could end world hunger by helping your grandchild study for the SATs or by exercising your brain?

At FreeRice.com, you can—or at least you can help. The ingenious website, started in October 2007 by an Indiana father on a quest to prep his son for the SATs, is an online vocabulary game that donates 20 grains of rice to hungry people worldwide for every word defined correctly.

Virtual rice, real money

When you arrive at the site, you’ll see a word in bold type and four words listed below it. To the left of the words there is a wooden bowl.

To play, you simply select one of the four words that best defines the one in question. Select correctly, and the bowl fills with 20 grains of virtual rice. Select incorrectly, and the game provides you with the right answer and allows you to keep playing—no virtual rice is deducted from the bowl. Back in the real world, the website’s advertisers donate the money needed to purchase the rice you won to the United Nations World Food Program.