Food Force serves as a classroom tool for teaching about hunger.

TEACHERS

From the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency, Food Force is a free educational video game telling the story of a hunger crisis on the fictitious island of Sheylan.

Comprised of 6 mini-games or “missions”, the game takes young players from an initial crisis assessment through to delivery and distribution of food aid, with each sequential mission addressing a particular aspect of this challenging process.

What can Food Force teach?

The various Food Force missions demonstrate and help explain the following hunger learning themes:

• What is hunger and who are the hungry?
• Why are people hungry and malnourished?
• What can we do to help end hunger?

Together, the missions provide an overview of how food aid is used in both emergencies and long-term development projects. We therefore suggest playing the game straight through from beginning to end, which takes about half an hour.

In case of limited time or lesson focus, individual missions can be accessed directly from the start-up screen by typing the mission number (1,2,3,4,5 or 6):

1. Air Surveillance: The causes of hunger and malnutrition
2. Energy Pacs: Nutrition and the cost of feeding the hungry
3. Airdrop: WFP’s emergency response
4. Locate and Dispatch: Global food procurement
5. The Food Run: Land-based logistics
6. Future Farming: Long-term food aid projects

The game has wide cross-curricular appeal (geography, social studies, health, etc.) and can strengthen strategic thinking and decision-making skills. It is an ideal lesson follow-up or homework activity.

Are other educational resources available?

WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are partners in educating young people about hunger and malnutrition and in motivating them to become actively involved in the fight against hunger.

The WFP Food Force educational video game and the FAO Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger education initiative are important tools for preparing and encouraging young people to work together to help create a world free from hunger

The lesson plans featured in this section are taken from the Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger education initiative. Each hunger learning theme page contains:

• Introductions and links to complete lesson plans at various learning levels
• Indications on how to use the game to enrich lessons and reinforce learning
• Links to relevant pages at the Food Force web site
• Background summary papers providing facts, definitions and brief explanations

Who is Food Force for?

Food Force is designed for children aged 8-13 years. Each mission’s gameplay is unique in order to maximize the game’s appeal to a variety of ages and learning levels.

Where to get Food Force?

Teachers are encouraged to download the game and install it on school computers or burn it onto a CD and make as many copies as required.