In Spain, NGO taps ‘foodstagrams’ to fight world hunger

The FoodShareFilter app enables users to raise money and awareness to fight world hunger by sharing customized food photos on Instagram.

Instagram is a useful tool for sharing our lives visually with others and it’s probably a sign of how comfortable the Western world currently is that one of its most popular uses is ‘foodstagrams’ – photos of everyday meals. We’ve already seen one restaurant tap the social media service to build a user-created menu, but now a Spanish charity is aiming to fight world hunger with its FoodShareFilter app, which enables users to raise money and awareness to fight world hunger by sharing customized food photos on Instagram. Created by the Manos Unidas NGO, which promotes the development of some of the world’s poorest countries, the app is a standalone download which lets users take photos of their meal and apply a filter with a message reading ‘This photo helps millions of people to avoid starvation’ in Spanish, as well as the hashtag #foodsharefilter. Users can then easily switch the photo over to Instagram, customize it and share with their network. Each shared photo raises awareness of food poverty around the world and – while Manos Unidas doesn’t gain financially from Instagram posts – the app is priced at the small cost of EUR 0.89 to help fight hunger. The video below explains – in Spanish – how the app works. FoodShareFilter is available from both the App Store and Google Play. Are there other ways that charities could monetize online sharing or help social causes go viral? Spotted by: Murtaza Patel