The UN launches ShareTheMeal, an app that lets people donate a meal to refugee children

The United Nations Food Programme launched ShareTheMeal, a mobile app that allows people to feed refugee children with just the tap of their fingers.

According to Venture Beat, more tech companies are putting their efforts to support humanitarian assistance campaigns, which are prompted by the increasing European and Middle Eastern refugee crisis. WFP executive director Ertharin Cousin said, "The simple act of sharing a meal is how people all over the world come together."

He added, "The digital version of sharing a meal is a tangible way That Generation Zero Hunger can act to end hunger."

UN News Centre posted WFP's statement explaining that a donation as small as 0.50 cents can already give a child the vital nutrition he or she needs for one day. The contribution will help feed Syrian refugee children who are part of the school meals program of WFP in Jordan. According to WFP, ShareTheMeal has a very big potential since there are 20 times more smartphone users than there are hungry children in the world. A prototype of the app was launched in some European countries in June and the results were amazing with 120,000 users giving over 1.7 million meals for children in Lesotho, South Africa.

Forbes reported that through the new app, people can choose how much they want to donate. The makers of the app are also developing a button that will let users make recurring, monthly donations. One amazing feature of the app is that it lets users share their charity efforts in their Facebook accounts, which helps encourage other people to do the same. This strategy is called the "gamification" of donating.

The app is the brainchild of Sebastian Stricker and Bernhard Kowatsch. There are World Food Programme managers. They came up with the idea in a gap year they took during 2014. This independent startup later got support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator. This project is in line with the ambitions of the UN to end world hunger by 2030.