From Fortnite to Food Justice: How Students Use Games to Drive Impact
June 6, 2025 / by Tatiana Skliarenko
What if a globally beloved video game becomes a platform to drive real-world change?
In March, over 80 students from Serbia, the UK, and the USA accepted the challenge by joining the Outplay Hunger Game Jam — a collaborative initiative by Epic Games, Games for Change, and World Food Program USA.
This two-day event formed part of the annual Games for Change Student Challenge – an international game design competition that empowers young people to address real-world issues aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through games.
For the first time, young jammers explored the potential of Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to design impactful games. Their aim was simple but ambitious: to leverage game design to combat hunger by minimizing food waste and advancing healthier meal options in their schools and communities.
To ensure their ideas reflect current realities, participants had the opportunity to engage directly with hunger experts from the World Food Program USA. Across all three Game Jam sites, World Food Program USA representatives shared insights that helped teams think more deeply about the systemic nature of food insecurity.
“Walking around, I was thrilled to see the students engage with the nuances of global hunger based on our presentation and the prompt,” said Cynthia Yue, Advocacy & Engagement Manager at World Food Program USA.
“Many students incorporated supply chain hurdles, sustainability aspects, and nutritional nuances into their games – special shoutout to the team that recreated a World Food Programme distribution warehouse! We definitely see this as a way to creatively engage with young people and give them an opportunity to apply their diverse skills in the global hunger space.”
What emerged from the jam was more than just gameplay — it was a collection of thoughtful, purpose-driven experiences. While set in Fortnite’s fictional worlds, these creations were grounded in real-life challenges and designed to help players feel, explore, and deeply engage with complex ideas.
A few standout game examples from the Game Jam site in Serbia include:
Reap, Cook, Deliver (Link)
By Red Team
This game places players in the role of a food supply chain worker, navigating the entire journey from sourcing ingredients to delivering hot meals to those in need. Players must make strategic choices around gathering, cooking, and delivering food by different means. The game raises awareness about the real-world impact of efficient and coordinated action.
Food Stranded (Link)
By Ide Gas
This game presents players with meaningful ethical decisions following a humanitarian aid plane crash on a remote island. Should they keep the scarce food to survive, or risk everything to help others? The game prompts reflection on resource allocation and sacrifice during crisis situations.
The Game Jam may have only lasted a weekend, but its impact stretched far beyond that. For the students involved, it offered more than a game-making exercise; it became a space to grow critical skills and valuable competencies like:
- Applying systems thinking to analyze complex challenges
- Translating abstract global issues into tangible experiences
- Collaborating across disciplines and backgrounds
- Building technical proficiency with industry-standard tools
- Creating experiences that could potentially reach millions of players
When equipped with expert support and tools they understand, young minds are not just learning to make games — they gain the power to speak up, advocate, and solve problems through the digital mediums they use every day.
This is where tools like UEFN come into play, offering an accessible yet robust platform that enables creators to focus on crafting meaningful stories and impact, without being held back by technical complexity.
For educators, UEFN makes game-based learning more approachable. With no need for advanced technical skills, teachers can guide students in developing games that explore big challenges, cultivate critical thinking, and generate sustainable outcomes.
“Many students have been deeply engaged in video games for years. While some may see this as purely entertainment or even wasted time, it’s actually developing a new form of communication,” said Brian Dickman of Cleverlike Studios, a leader in connecting video games with education and career success.
“By leveraging their rich schema around video games, we’re able to teach them new technical and creative skills that empower them to build impactful experiences that resonate with their generation.”
The Outplay Hunger Game Jam is one example of what is possible when creativity meets purpose. As part of the G4C Student Challenge, similar game jams have been held in 76 countries, reaching more than 3,500 students worldwide with a shared purpose: to make game creation more open and inclusive. By lowering entry barriers, we welcome more diverse voices into the space — voices that are ready to tackle pressing issues and lead transformative change through interactive media.
Interested in getting involved? Here’s where to start:
