First there was the Ice Bucket Challenge…and now there’s the Rice Bucket Challenge.

When the Ice Bucket trend hit India, where clean drinking water is scarce, guess how they did it?

They didn’t.

What was born instead was the really rather wonderful spin-off, the Rice Bucket Challenge: giving a bucket of rice to a neighbour in need.

Manju Latha Kalanidhi, a journalist from Hyderabad, India, who reports on the global rice market, began the movement just a week ago and her Facebook page set up to raise awareness of the challenge has over 47,000 likes, and counting.

We may not be in India but there are still underprivileged and marginalized members of Singapore society.  I have found three admirable charities who provide things like daily meals and support services to people here who are in need.

So, without further a-do, here is my Rice Bucket Challenge:

I donated a bucket of rice to The Food Bank this morning, a place where companies or people can deposit or donate any unused or unwanted food. It is then collated and allocated to those in need via various channels including voluntary welfare organisations, charities, soup kitchens etc.

As explained on Manju’s Facebook page, there are four steps to the Rice Bucket Challenge:

1) Pick up a bowl of rice from your kitchen

2) Go to the nearest needy person and give it to them (this is not that straight forward if you live in Singapore, so I suggest giving via a charitable channel – I’ve listed three at the end of this post)

3) Click a picture and post it on Facebook with the hashtag #RiceBucketChallenge

4) Tag all your friends and ask them to take up the challenge

According to the World Bank, 312million people in India live below the poverty line.

There are a number of charities here in Singapore that distribute food to those in need including Food Bank Singapore, who I donated through, Food from the Heart and Willing Hearts.

Take the #RiceBucketChallenge!