The Good Belly Project launches

We’re really excited to launch the Good Belly Project, a social-media powered philanthropic project in aid of UNICEF to help relieve hunger in East Africa.

The Situation

Millions of children across Somalia and the Horn of Africa are suffering a deadly combination of drought, escalating food prices and armed conflict.

The famine in Somalia is swift and dreadful. More than half of the population—4 million people—is in crisis. In the six famine districts, the number of people affected has doubled since July. Without urgent assistance, more than 160,000 children in southern Somalia will die in the coming weeks.

For more information on the famine and UNICEF’s work in the region, please visit this site.

A New Kind of Response to a Big International Disaster: 50/50

Mullen has joined an ad-hoc network of contributors spearheaded by Made by Many, called 50/50.  50/50 is a kind of digital folk movement that’s convened to try and do something actively to help the people of East Africa.

In a nutshell, 50/50 is a fairly insane experiment to create a platform of 50 digital projects in 50 days to raise £1m for famine relief in East Africa.

You will see projects by some of the world’s biggest ad agencies—JWT, BBH, Leo Burnett, SapientNitro, Mullen, Fallon, CHI, Arnold, Butler Shine—as well as from some amazing individual makers and people who just want to do something.  Most of these agencies actually compete with each other in day-to-day life, but have come together for this cause.  What’s even more remarkable is that we are all doing this in our spare time—evenings and weekends.

This marks a new kind of response to a big international disaster and highlights a new type of behavior. 50/50 is definitely part of a much broader trend towards active, experiential fundraising that is embedded in social networks and the living web.

Mullen’s 50/50 idea: the Good Belly Project

Americans love food—we watch it on TV, we go out of our way for it, we bond over it, and now, we even photograph it to share with our friends in social media.  In a nation of abundance, how can we use this juxtaposition of feast and famine to build awareness to our cause? Mullen has decided to turn the trend of taking “glamour food shots” into the very vehicle that will help feed famine victims in East Africa, and we’ve called it the Good Belly Project.

It’s easy: use Instagram and hashtag #goodbellyproject when you go to participating restaurants

Foodies love food so much they take photos of their meals to share with friends on social media.  So Mullen partnered with Boston restaurants to mobilize these foodies for our cause.  We’re asking foodies to use a popular photo-sharing iPhone app called Instagram to photograph the food or drink they order at participating Good Belly establishments.  For every photograph taken and tagged with both our hashtag (#goodbellyproject) and restaurant location, the restaurant donates $1 to the cause.

Mullen wanted to make this charity fun for Boston foodies, so we’ve centered it on enjoying what you already love to do rather than depriving yourself like other charities ask you to do.

The Good Belly Project kicked-off on World Food Day, Sunday, October 16, 2011.

So go ahead, eat, take pictures and help fill the bellies of children in East Africa.