TechCrunch dug into the fine print of Microsoft's "Browser for the Better" campaign and found that the company is donating just $1.15 for every Internet Explorer 8 download made through the campaign site. The campaign prominently touts the fact that Microsoft is donating eight meals per download. So that translates into 14 cents a meal.

"I don’t know where Microsoft is eating, but I have never heard of any place that you can get a meal for 14 cents," writes MG Siegler.

Looking for an answer, we called Feeding America, the national food-bank network that will receive the donation. In fact, Microsoft's math is correct, and its promised donation of up to $1 million is a "godsend," said Ross Fraser, a spokesman for the organization.

       The text on Microsoft's campaign page.

But the explanation still raises questions about Microsoft's overarching claim that it's donating "meals" to the program.

The disconnect comes from the fact that most of the meals distributed through food banks are donated through existing arrangements. So financial donations such as those from Microsoft fund the infrastructure and other costs to provide that food to people who need it.

Here's the math: Under Feeding America's guidelines, $1 covers the cost of distributing 10 pounds of food. So Microsoft's donation of $1.15 per download funds the distribution of 11.5 pounds of food. The organization uses a USDA formula that puts the average American meal at 1.28 pounds. That means the Microsoft donation funds the distribution of more than eight meals.

Here's what Microsoft said in response to our inquiry:

The USDA defines a meal as 1.28 pounds of food, so the donations Feeding America receives as part of the campaign covers the cost of their food banks being able to provide that to the people in their community.  While $1.15 may not seem like a lot of money at first glance, it does represent 8 meals from Feeding America, which is pretty extraordinary when you think about the difference we can all make whether through this campaign or through other ways within our communities.

In the fine print on the campaign site, Microsoft does say that it's donating money, not food, and that it's using the phrase "meals" on the site for "illustrative purposes only." But is that an adequate disclosure when the large print makes it seem like Microsoft is donating -- or at least funding -- the actual boxes of pasta and cans of soup?

In an update to his post, TechCrunch's Siegler points out that it's "all about Microsoft donating a dollar amount to a charity, and not really about the meals." He continues, "That’s why it’s misleading to say in big bold letters that it’s donating 8 meals for every IE download. Microsoft is not actually donating any meals, it is donating a relatively small amount of money to a charity that provides meals."

But Feeding America's Fraser says it's "upsetting when someone snipes about someone who is very generously trying to help us."