Every day you can make a contribution to easing world hunger just by clicking on the "donate free food" button on the internet home page of The Hunger Site (www.thehungersite.com).

The contribution is made to the United Nations World Food Program. The Hunger Site allows each visitor to make a daily contribution of food to one of the 800 million starving people around the world and at no financial cost to them.

The amount of food depends on the number of sponsors that day. Each advertiser pays for one quarter cup of food per click. If there are four sponsors on a given day, then each click is equivalent to one cup of food. The more sponsors there are, the more food is donated. On November 18, 1999 your donation would have been 1 3/4 cups of rice, wheat, maize or other staple food added to over 100 tons delivered weekly.

Since the site's inception in June, donations have grown from 173,000 to 4.8 million, or 6.3 million cups of food, according to Francis Mwanza, spokeswoman for the World Food Program that feeds people in 80 nations. "The extraordinary growth of The Hunger Site has shown us the potential of the Internet in the fight against hunger," she said.

"The number of people who've visited the site proves that people do care about hunger and want to help us stop it," said Mwanza. The U.N. program determines what food will be sent to which particular nation in crisis.

Created by John Breen, a computer programmer in Bloomington, Ind., the site offers a straightforward compilation of data on hunger, how sponsorships are calculated, links to related hunger sites and a map that starkly outlines starvation around the world.

Every time someone dies of hunger, or every four seconds, according to the United Nations, the affected country on the map flashes. The death does not necessarily occur in that country but is based on statistical probability in countries where people are starving.

Advertisers — it averaged 5.3 sponsors in October — are pleased. A new internet-based flower company, proflowers.com, was one of the first sponsors. Karleen Wise, cause-marketing manager for the firm, said it wasn't the least expensive way to acquire new customers but the affiliation with The Hunger Site made an important statement about the firm's value. "We sell sentiment and emotion, someone giving something to someone else. When you donate food, you're thinking about someone else, too."

To assuage sponsors, who cannot know exactly how much they'll owe until donations are tabulated, Breen has capped the maximum number of donations an advertiser is responsible for. They'll not pay more than 150 percent of the largest day in the last 30 days. Based on the current rate of 2,000 to 3,000 donations every day, the site costs advertisers between $1,000 and $1,500 on weekdays.

People from more than 100 countries have donated and are encouraged to bookmark it on their computers. Donate Food Now! And bookmark The Hunger Site! (The American News Service)