A Scottish charity – which started from a tin shed – is now feeding three million children every school day in poverty-hit countries after it scaled up its global aid operation.
Mary’s Meals, which started off feeding just 200 people with the help of donations, is now providing meals for youngsters in 16 countries.
Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, who still works out of the same shed in Dalmally in Argyll and Bute, said: “When we first began serving Mary’s Meals in one small primary school in Malawi back in 2003, we could never have imagined that this would grow into a global movement now serving more than three million children every school day.”
Mr MacFarlane-Barrow founded the charity in 2002 after visiting Malawi during a famine, where he met a mother who was dying from AIDS and her eldest son, Edward.
Edward revealed his hopes and dreams for life were “to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day”.
Some 23 years later, the charity now provides for children in Haiti, South Sudan, Syria and many other countries where child poverty is rife.
A 10p donation alone is enough to fund a meal for a child, the charity says.
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Mary’s Meals had been feeding about 2.2 million children until the start of 2024, when it scaled up to provide more, now reaching the three million milestone.
Mr MacFarlane-Barrow said: “This work has grown the way it has because all over the world people of goodwill are sharing a little of what they have so that children can eat and go to school, thus gaining an education that can set them free from poverty.
“We see that each time local volunteers begin to serve our school meals, using locally sourced food, hope enters in.
“Children begin attending school for the first time, because of the promise of a meal. And those who were previously too hungry to concentrate in class are now able to learn.”
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The work is possible because of donations. Last month, Edinburgh schoolboy Lochlan McCole climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise £1,000 for Mary’s Meals while later in September great-grandmother Ellison Hudson, 87, will tackle 30 miles on her tricycle to celebrate the charity reaching the three million mark.
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Mr MacFarlane-Barrow said: “Whilst it is an amazing thing that this work has grown to reach three million children, the sad reality is that tens of millions of children remain hungry and out of school.
“This very day, in a world in which we produce more than enough food for us all, thousands of children will die of hunger-related causes. And yet it costs Mary’s Meals around 10p to serve one meal, and less than £20 to feed a child for a whole school year.
“This landmark is less a celebration than it is a call to action. We invite every person of goodwill to join the Mary’s Meals movement so that our vision – that every child in this world receives one daily meal in their place of education – might be realised.”
