“Berry nice to meet you” greetings for World Food Day with healthy, lovable fruits, and vegetables on Viber

Feeling lonely, excited, or strong, or just want to cheer up others? Share your feelings with the healthy fruit and vegetable stickers of FAO, offered starting on 16 October in the Viber sticker market for free! The stickers, available in English, will promote using “real” ingredients and cooking at home, instead of eating pre-packaged and processed food.

The UN agency and Rakuten Viber, one of the leading messaging apps globally, have gathered forces for World Food Day to raise awareness around the theme of healthy food and nutrition, and bring it into everyone’s lives and social interactions.

More than a dozen stickers – representing healthy fruits and vegetables – trigger and express emotions, showing nutritional benefits, while others advertise cooking and not wasting agricultural produce. Besides being fun, all of the fruits and veggies in the stickers give a message relating to their valuable sources for vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients, such as vitamin C (apple), folate (spinach), and iron (beetroot).

As achieving Zero Hunger is not only about addressing hunger, but also nourishing people while at the same time nurturing the planet. This year, World Food Day calls for action to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone. At the same time, it calls on everyone to start thinking about what we eat. This is why FAO turned to Rakuten Viber to raise awareness around issues related to hunger and nutrition.

The stickers are connected to an interactive and educational community in Viber, named FAO World Food Day, where people can go beyond just pure fun. This exciting new forum will share tips for healthy and diverse eating from FAO experts and allow you to interact with community members on sustainability, as well as to inspire you to make important changes in your lifestyle.

Diets and eating habits have dramatically changed in recent decades as a result of globalization, urbanization, and income growth. People have moved from seasonal and mainly plant-based and fibre-rich dishes to diets that are high in refined starches, sugar, fats, salt, processed foods, meat, and other animal-source products. Less time is spent on preparing meals at home and consumers, especially in urban areas, increasingly rely on pre-packaged supermarket meals, fast food outlets, street food vendors, and take-away restaurants.

A combination of unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles has sent obesity rates soaring in developed and low-income countries alike, where hunger and obesity often coexist. Now over 670 million adults and 120 million girls and boys (5–19 years) are obese, and over 40 million children under five are overweight, while over 820 million people suffer from hunger.

About Rakuten Viber:
Rakuten Viber connects people; no matter who they are, or where they are from. Its global user base has access to a range of features like one-on-one chats, video calls, group messaging, and updates and discussions with their favorite brands and celebrities. Viber aims to provide its users a secure and free environment to share their emotions.

Rakuten Viber is part of Rakuten Inc., a world leader in e-commerce and financial services. It is the official communication channel of FC Barcelona, and the official instant messaging and calling app partner of the Golden State Warriors.

15 October 2019, Budapest, Hungary