The majority of people love to share pictures of their meals on social media. I don’t really understand it, but then again, I am not a foodie. All I know is that some of my friends and social media buddies eat some amazing looking meals on a regular basis. The food always seems to be styled perfectly, even when home-made. Maybe the reason I don’t take pictures of the food I make is because no one wants to see poorly styled food, nor pictures of toasted sandwiches, oven baked chips or microwave instant meals.
For all the foodies, here’s an app that does good while you make your followers envy your plate of food. Feedie has been donned the first foodie philanthropy app. It simply works like this: when you take a picture of your food at a participating restaurant and upload it to www.wethefeedies.com using the app, the restaurant donates R2.50 (the estimated cost of a meal for a child) to The Lunchbox Fund. This goes towards meals to feed children of impoverished schools in South Africa. When users upload their pictures it is automatically published on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Google +. Currently, Feedie is only available for download to iPhone users from the iTunes App Store. But fret not, as of 1 May, it will also be available to Android users too.
The App was launched in New York City last October and is a huge success. Now in South Africa, the initiative is spearheaded by South African-born Page Green and local chef Peter Tempelhof to generate support from foodies and restaurants locally.
I have to bombard you with some stats now, but it’s important to know why you should get involved. More than 12 million children in South Africa live on less than R20 a day. That’s less than your morning latte and muffin. Think about that! Government is able to reach about 8 million of these children through School Feeding Programmes and The Lunchbox Fund aims to reach the other 4 million by providing these children with a meal at school every single day. I think this is very rad. Children are our future leaders and contributors to our economy, we need them to be well fed. Without proper nutrition, no one can function properly and a child’s brain, when operating on an empty tummy, isn’t geared to retain any information, never mind do well at school or develop a healthy body. You know how grumpy and unproductive you get late in the afternoon in the office? These children feel that way 24/7. You have the power to change this. Isn’t that a great thought?
As of 1 April, all the Tashas restaurants have thrown their weight behind the Feedie App as well as the Knead Bakery and Café restaurants; and Willoughby’s in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Download the Feedie app and start fighting childhood hunger.
The next time you can’t decide where to go for breakfast, lunch, dinner or merely a snack, consider these places and feed a hungry child while bragging about your delicious food online. Remember, doing good deeds is always glamorous and in fashion.
