Video game takes aim at hunger

The United Nations World Food Program has developed a video game called Food Force, designed to help children learn about the fight against world hunger. The French version of the game was scheduled to be released on World Food Day, Oct. 16. Food Force is available as a free Internet download at www.food-force.com. The game is designed for children between 8 and 13 years of age. While playing the game’s six different missions alongside Food Force’s crack team of emergency aid workers, players are faced with a number of realistic challenges to feed thousands of people quickly on a fictitious island; they pilot helicopters on reconnaissance missions, negotiate with armed rebels on a convoy run, and use food to help rebuild villages.

Based in Rome, the World Food Program is the world’s largest humanitarian agency. It is active in more than 80 countries in order to feed some 90 million people each year.