A Dallas-based startup has challenged major tech giants — Apple, Google, and Microsoft — to compete in The Do Lunch Different Challenge to raise awareness and funds that will be used to affect the lives of 500,000 high school students.

The company that can get the highest percentage of employees to eat lunch with new, random co-workers wins.

“There’s only two ways to eat lunch in corporate America: eat alone or eat with the same co-workers. We’ve created a third way — eat lunch with random co-workers. We built a technology platform called ZinkUz, that connects people together within the boundaries of their organization. We call it Do Lunch Different,” DLD co-founder Mala Brough said in a release.

According to the Do Lunch Different website, the startup hopes to raise $1.5 million to launch DLD Challenges in 200 high schools throughout the U.S.

“One of life’s most valuable skills is networking and an entire generation is being raised on social media which can cause them to lose the art of turning a stranger into a friend. The DLD mission is to equip students with the skills to make new friends,” according to the release. 

DLD chose Apple, Google, and Microsoft to lead off the challenge since they were all started by friends with common interests. The competition is scheduled to begin Nov. 11. 

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