Participate!
Participate as an individual or household
It's so simple:
- Buy a bag of rice.
- Get out your calendar and schedule a rice dinner on one day each month. We'll suggest that you commit to 12 months.
- On each scheduled day, feed yourself/your family a meager meal of rice only.
- Estimate the amount of money you've saved in food costs and send that amount to a hunger charity of your choice.
See, it IS easy. And it costs no more than the price of your envelope and stamp to "administer" this program.
Q. How much money should I send?
It's up to you. Many
participants send $10 per month. A few who
can afford it send quite a bit more. The need is real, so pick an amount you
can sustain and start with that.
Q. I hate rice. Can I still participate somehow?
Of course!! Skip the rice and send the money
every month anyway. With skyrocketing food costs, hunger charities really
need our support to meet their goals.
Q. What charity should I send my money to?
There are many
excellent hunger charities. Our focus is to get lots of people to embrace
the Rice Dinner Project's monthly giving idea, regardless of which charity.
Q. No really, just tell me the name of a good hunger charity.
OK, if you still
want some direction, we can offer a list of some hunger
charities that
we feel are excellent stewards of the money they receive.
Q. Do you, the folks who've made this website, collect any money?
No, please
send it to a hunger charity.
Q. What do you gain from this?
We get a good feeling if you take part in
the Rice Dinner Project. Send us your stories! Send
pictures, too! Tell us if we can publish them in this
website's Community section. This will help
us keep the momentum going.
Q. Are there other ways to help?
Yes. Read the next two sections for ideas.
Participate as a group leader
This idea will have a much stronger impact when we get more people to understand how easy and sensible it is to take part.
Please share this idea with your church, synagogue, mosque, or other religious congregation; your coworkers; your local Rotary or Lion's or Optimists' Clubs, your Girl Scout or Boy Scout troops or 4-H Groups; or anywhere else people will listen.
Visit our Resources section for some handouts that may help you lead others in this endeavor.
You might try giving everyone in your audience a bag with 1/2 cup of rice in it, along with a fact sheet and a dozen address labels (if you have a particular charity in mind for your group). These are good visual reminders ("that meager bag of rice would be a full meal for half the world's inhabitants") and a reminder to act ("these stickers are meant to make it even easier for you to send your contribution").
If you have good ideas about how to lead a group, tell us what's working for you.
Other ways to help
Link to our site from your own sites. If possible, use the words "rice dinner project" in your link, to help the search engines find us.
Blog about us, and, if it's appropriate to the subject of a blog you comment on, add a link to us there too. (But don't add a link to us unless it makes sense in the context of the blog post. That's called "link spamming" and won't reflect well on our site.)
Tell your religious leaders, your kids' youth groups, your company's boss, etc. about this site. Maybe they will be interested in trying it or spreading the word.
Sign up for our email list to receive the occasional email about our project. There's a signup box on the left hand side of every page on this website.