Every 3.6 seconds someone dies from hunger or hunger-related causes. While many of us stare into a computer eight hours a day, 8,000 people die from lack of nutrition. The good news is that while we’re planted in front of our computers, we can help end world hunger.

On The Hunger Site‘s home page (www.thehungersite.com), a box reads “Donate Free Food.” Click on it, and you make a donation to hungry people around the globe. Participating sponsors pay for all donations. Each sponsor pays a half-cent per donation, and their checks go directly to the United Nations World Food Program. It’s the world’s largest food aid organization, with projects in 80 countries, and it works in conjunction with a number of other relief groups as well. UNWFP also decides the most appropriate food to distribute to any country or situation. As reliable sources of complex carbohydrates and protein, and the staple foods for most countries’ populations, rice, wheat, and maize are the usual candidates. Other common relief foods include beans, millet, barley, and sorghum.

You can make only one donation per day (you’re welcome to click again at midnight Eastern Time), and oftentimes not all of the Hunger Site’s sponsor slots have been filled.

“Who is this Hunger Site, anyway?” you might well ask. A private citizen began the Hunger Site on June 1, 1999, as an independent and nonpartisan Internet site to help alleviate hunger in the world. No company or political, religious, or other organization runs the site. Although originally not a nonprofit (the site used to charge its sponsors 14 percent of the donation amount), the Hunger Site now assures that 100 percent of the donation amount goes to fighting hunger. Also, rest assured that the Hunger Site respects your privacy: You won’t face mandatory personal forms or a spammed inbox the next day.

“Is there anything more I can do than click my mouse?” Actually, yes. Although the Hunger Site doesn’t accept direct donations, they’ll happily advise you on organizations that can use your money. The Hunger Site also happily accepts free publicity, and they offer a collection of banners you’re welcome to post on your own personal or business Web site. If you know of any potential sponsor companies, why not clue them in to the Hunger Site so that they, like us, can stretch 3.6 seconds out to a lifetime?