Actress Drew Barrymore announced on the Oprah Winfrey Show today that she’s donating $1 million to the World Food Programme’s “Fill the Cup” campaign, whose goal is to feed 59 million hungry school children in developing countries for a year, as Reuters reports:

“I have seen with my own eyes what a difference a simple cup of nutritious porridge can make in a child’s life”It helps them learn, stay healthy and sets them on track for a bright future. I urge everyone — everywhere — to help WFP ‘Fill the Cup’ for hungry children, and make hunger history.”

Barrymore has been an WFP ambassador against hunger since 2005, and has traveled to Kenya twice in the past two years on behalf of WFP.

The biofuel boom has driven up the cost of grains all over the world, leaving the WFP tcope with a $500 million gap in funding. While in Chicago today, Barrymore took a trip to the Chicago Board of Trade’s corn futures pit with Josette Sheeran, WFP’s executive director, who noted that a donation of just $50 “fills a child’s cup for a year.”

Find out how you can help feed the world at www.wfp.org.

Last week I promised it was possible to buy your valentine a great gift without selling your soul and Monday I put up a list of 10 great guilt-free jewelry gifts, so you Valentine’s Day shoppers should be all set. But, for those of you who still haven’t bought the special gift for that special someone, it’s not too late. If your valentine has a sweet tooth, and prefers chocolate to jewels, what could be sweeter than chocolate that tastes great and isn’t the product the exploitation and slavery of children. The reality of most chocolate production is sad and scary: According to the State Department, more than 109,000 children in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry work under “the worst forms of child labor,” 10,000 of whom are victims of human trafficking or enslavement. And with the U.S. consuming 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate annually, nearly half of the world’s supply, we can help end child labor chocolate production. So this Valentines Day, even if you’re last minute and don’t have time to order online, say “I love you” with slavery-free chocolates!

By searching Fair Trade Federation’s Website, I found 65 stores carrying fair trade chocolates and other fair trade guilt-free Valentine’s Day gifts. Here are some of my faves

1. If you live in the Bay Area (of course) or Portland, you can go to Global Exchange Stores and buy a chocolate assortment box to exchange with your valentine.

2. A Greater Gift, has stores in Maryland and Wisconsin , and is sold in several other locations, so it won’t be hard to find a Divine Chocolate Gift Set and support a farmers’ cooperative in Ghana.

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Ending Violence Against Women is certainly a daunting task. But this award-winning multi media exhibit is a great way to learn about how people are combating this epidemic and what you can do. So and check out the engaging exhibit created by the UN Population Foundation, which offers 24 tips and other great resources.

and learn more about how people are working to end violence against women in Bangladesh, Mexico, Kenya and other countries.

WITNESS, the legendary organization which uses video and online technologies to reveal human rights violations, is now even cooler. (I didn’t think it was possible.)

WITNESS has created The Hub a spanking new website where you can find and upload human rights-related media and then go do something about it. So check out the Hub and start searching away. Here’s a video about Kenya I found just Hubbing around.

And if you’re a filmmaker you can too and start uploading your own footage!

Kenyan opposition leaders are starting to forego street protests in favor of consumer boycotts. Says Salim Lone, a spokesperson for Mr. Odinga’s party, “The strategy is to weaken those who are hard-liners and using their wealth to undermine democracy.” The boycott will focus primarily on businesses belonging to supporters of President Kibaki, who own major transportation and agricultural companies in Nairobi. A government spokesperson for the Kibaki administration has discouraged the boycott, saying that the economy has been hurt enough after weeks of violent conflict, a quickly diminishing tourist industry, and a weakened currency.

Grassroots boycotts are democratic, commonplace around the world, and a praiseworthy practice of public protest. Learn more about Adbusters “Buy Nothing” Day consumer spending moratorium, and click here to take action:

Hundreds of people have been killed as a result of Kenya’s post-election riots, and the death tolls are rising in the worst tribal conflict in 15 years. Members of Kenya’s most powerful tribe, the Kikuyu, have been chased out of their villages in the fertile Rift Valley, with reports of people being burned alive in their homes, and even in churches. Although the violence has largely been attributed to accusations of incumbent President Mwai Kibaki (a Kikuyu) stealing the December 27th election, many Kenyans see land ownership as the main catalyst for the conflict.

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In an attempt to curb the post-election violence, tribal clashes and riots in Kenya that have left 300 people dead and 100,000 homeless, president Mwai Kibaki has proposed a “unity government,” but has not provided details as to whether a power sharing offer had been extended to opposition leader Raila Odinga.

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Clashes errupt between police and rioters in Kenya after the re-election of president Mwai Kibaki resulted in the suspension of live television broadcasts by the Kenyan Television Network. Raila Odinga’s opposition party, Orange Democratic Movement, has accused the government of rigging the elections, with incumbent Kibaki narrowly winning by 231,000 votes out of 8.9 million cast.