How many kids can your frappe cappuccino feed?

How many hungry children can a cup of designer coffee, a box of pizza, or a simple hamburger feed? A day before the beginning of the sacrificial season of Lent on Wednesday, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched an online calculator that estimates the number of poor children that users can feed by giving up their favorite food items. An online payment scheme also allows users to translate the computations into actual donations. Called WeFeedback, the application makes the computation using three inputs from users – their favorite food, its price, and the number of servings. WeFeedback then divides the total price by the cost of giving a meal to a hungry child – $0.25, or P10.75, based on WFP standards. Users can also click the box containing the results – with the header “Feed Them Now!" – which will then open a pop-up for making a corresponding donation through an online payment scheme. GMA News Online tried the application and found out that a regular-sized cup of designer coffee, worth an average of P120 or $2.79, can feed 11 children. A regular box of pizza worth around P270 or $6.28, meanwhile, can provide meals to 25. A plain hamburger that costs around P40 or $0.93 can fill the stomachs of four. Comprising about 80 percent of the Philippine population, Catholics mark Lent as a season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. New approach “In the developed world, life puts tasty food on our plates all the time. French sausage, avocado, or chocolate cake – we all have our favorites," the WFP says on the WeFeedback website. “If we take just one of these things and give it back, or ‘feed it back,’ we can help change the lives of hungry school children around the world." “Making the world a better place starts with food," the agency adds. “Food fuels education. Food fuels free choice. Food fuels economic independence. Food fuels peace." WeFeedback has so far registered 680 donations, each with an average cost of $17.38 or P747, feeding 47,263 children. Roughly one percent of these donations – 10 cappucinnos with an average cost of $4 or P172 each – have come from the Philippines. The donors remain unidentified. The WeFeedback site lists the top donations as sushi, pizza, grilled cheese, and birthday cake. As of 7:30pm on March 9, over 1,500 people worldwide have “liked" the app on Facebook. Food crisis The program comes at a time when food prices worldwide have hit a record high and the world braces itself for a possible food crisis. In the Philippines, senators have urged the Departments of Agriculture and Trade and Industry to prepare for possible food price increases and shortages due to the wave of political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. “The rising price of crude oil would not just trigger but accelerate the increase of food costs worldwide. This would be felt first and foremost by those living in poverty," Senator Edgardo Angara on Monday said. The senator explained, "The average Filipino family spends about half of its income on food alone. If this expense eats up any more of the household budget, Filipinos will have to scrimp on other basic necessities." Millions hungry In a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey at the end of 2010, 3.4 million Filipino families claimed to have gone hungry in the last three months of the year due a lack of anything to eat. Around the globe, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 925 million people do not have enough to eat. The FAO says the number dwarfs the population of the United States, and the European Union. The Asia-Pacific Region, to which the Philippines belongs, is home to about two-thirds of the world’s hungry. — TJD, GMA News