Play the free academic English vocabulary building game at freerice.com, learn new words, review for standardized tests, and help feed the world’s poorest poor. Designed by computer programmer John Breen, the creator of The Hunger Site, freerice.com donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program each time you correctly answer a vocabulary question.

The vocabulary has been drawn from a test bank of words used on a wide variety of standardized exams such as the SAT, GRE, TOEFL, and MCAT. Each time you answer a question correctly, you are given a more difficult vocabulary word. “Freerice.com is an international, viral sensation. Folks from Thailand to Germany and India are just as enthusiastic . . . improving thousands of lives, all with a simple, collective, click of a mouse” reports CBS Evening News. Check it out!

You can learn more about the site by reading this short, yet informative Washington Post article titled What's the Word? We Can Feed the Hungry published back in November 2007. You can find additional information on this project at excellent fact checking website Snopes - Free Rice . The project is just a tiny drop of assistance into an ocean of need, but some drops add up and help some hungry people.

As 2007 ends and we prepare to create even more satisfying personal lives in 2008, let’s also remember the more than 1 billion people who continue to live on planet earth on less than $2 a day. Will the next year bring some overdue help to people living – literally – hand to mouth, often without clean water, or a roof over their heads? Many outstanding organizations battle hunger on a daily basis such as the Heifer Society and Oxfam to UNICEF and Wateraid. They all deserve our support.

We can at least click on a few keys on our computer and send a few grains of rice. Can’t we?

Besides, playing word games is fun!

Yes, a great site that you can tell your students about! They can learn English while doing something about the world's problem, helping the UN world food program tackle poverty and hunger.

Every little bit helps