Education Planing

A plane circles over a crisis zone. War. Drought. People are hungry. The aircraft goes into a steep climb before launching its first airdrop of food aid. A truck struggles up a muddy, treacherous road, and rebels loom. People are anxious, waiting and food is scarce.

This is the virtual world of "Food Force". Not an action film, but the first humanitarian video game about global hunger unveiled by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) (http://www.wfp.org)

Food Force has been created specifically to help teach children about the big issue of hunger in the world - from dealing with emergencies, such as the recent tsunami crisis, to longer-term social and economic issues in the developing world.

Delivering food aid often involves a complex series of tasks. Before each mission begins, the player is presented with an educational video segment about the reality of WFP's work in field, allowing them to learn and understand how WFP responds to actual food emergencies, where food originates, nutritional breakdown and how it is delivered. Then, it's the players turn to take the mission challenge. Each challenge reflects one key element of the food delivery process - from emergency response to building long term food security for a community.