There are 50,000 runners and 2 million spectators in this Sunday's New York City Marathon. If around half of those have a smartphone and use the Charity Miles app they can feed millions of hungry children.
The Charity Miles app keeps track of your running, walking and biking distances. Every mile you cover donates a meal to a hungry person or to another cause. You simply select a charity, your workout type, and click start.
When you are finished exercising you log your workout and a sponsor like Humana, Lifeway Foods and others make a donation to the charity of your choice. It's totally free for you. The corporate sponsor takes care of the payment.
With Charity Miles you have the role as an ambassador. You can post your workout results and the impact to twitter and facebook.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is one of the charities you can select using the app. WFP is the largest food aid organization in the world, fighting hunger in over seventy countries.
One of its ambassadors is former NYC Marathon champ Paul Tergat. He received WFP school meals as a child, which allowed him to realize his potential. Now Tergat speaks around the world advocating school meals for all children.
Charity Miles donations support WFP school meals around the world. This Sunday would be a great opportunity for NYC runners and spectators alike to use the app and raise funds for WFP. This would allow more people, like Tergat has, to reach great heights.
WFP provides the school meals in countries leveled by war, disasters and extreme poverty. The food can prevent child malnutrition but also adds the benefit of increasing class attendance and performance.
So it's a very effective food aid tool with lasting implications. In fact, school meals were a major part of the U.S. strategy to secure peace and reconstruction in Europe after World War II. Today, it remains imperative for other areas in need.
So far Charity Miles has provided almost 200,000 school meals via WFP. This Sunday's marathon is a chance to greatly increase this number and inspire more users and corporate sponsors for the app.
Charity Miles is so easy to use. A spectator or runner could carry the app with them in their pocket or hand and be racking up the miles.
With millions of people at the NYC marathon what a great opportunity this would be to fight world hunger. WFP is so short on resources right now, they have been forced to cut back on school feeding for Syrian refugees. Let's restore this program and others.
Once you start using Charity Miles it can be a part of every day. It's that simple. You can help WFP as well as other causes including Stand up 2 Cancer and Feeding America.
Charity Miles is actually based in New York City. So this is perfect timing. The NYC Marathon has a number of charity teams running including one representing UNICEF, a WFP partner. Team UNICEF has raised over $200,000 for Ebola victims.
Using the Charity Miles app is a great way to continue helping others around the world. Millions of children could receive meals with just one race on Sunday. So let's make it happen. Go to the Charity Miles web site to download the app. Good luck to all the runners!