Mary's Meals now feeding three million children a day as Glasgow celebration events planned

A Scottish charity that started feeding just 200 children from a shed in the Highlands has announced it is feeding more than three million children every school day, a milestone its founder ‘could never have imagined’.

Mary’s Meals was born in 2002 when Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, from Dalmally in Argyll, visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When Magnus asked her eldest son Edward what his dreams were in life, he replied simply: “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”

Today, 23 years later, Mary’s Meals provides more than three million school meals a day across 16 countries, including Haiti, South Sudan and Syria. A nutritious meal, funded by a donation of just 10p, brings hungry children into the classroom, where they can gain an education and better opportunities for the future.

The milestone follows a major scale-up of Mary’s Meals’ school feeding programmes across nine countries, with around 800,000 children added to the programme globally since the start of 2024, including in Ethiopia’s war-torn region of Tigray, Malawi and Zambia, which are enduring the effects of climate change-induced drought and flooding, and Haiti, a country besieged by political unrest and extreme violence.

This incredible growth comes amid a backdrop of cuts to international aid budgets and a global cost-of-living crisis, as the low-cost charity, which can feed a child for a whole school year for only £19.15, continues to punch above its weight.

Magnus, who still works out of the same tin shed in Dalmally which serves as Mary’s Meals’ global headquarters, says: “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.

“And yet, at the same time, when we see how this simple, inexpensive intervention is helping to transform some of the world’s poorest communities we have an urgent desire for it to grow faster – and a belief that it can.

“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.”

Mary’s Meals wouldn't be able to reach these children without its dedicated volunteers, both those who help to serve school meals in their own communities, and those who raise awareness of our mission across the UK.

Supporters from all generations have played their part. Last month, Edinburgh schoolboy Lochlan McCole climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise £1,000 for Mary’s Meals, while later in September, 87-year-old Great Grandmother Ellison Hudson will tackle 30 miles on her tricycle to celebrate the charity reaching the three million mark.

Despite this latest milestone, Magnus has issued a rallying call for people in Scotland to help the charity to reach the next million hungry children waiting for a meal, with 71 million primary school-age children out of school.

He says: “Whilst it is an amazing thing that this work has grown to reach 3 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.

“And so, this landmark is less a celebration than it is a call to action. We invite every person of good will 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.”

The charity is holding events across Glasgow this September to raise awareness of its work. These include an open day at Broomhill Hyndland Parish Church on Saturday,, September 20, where visitors can hear the latest updates on Mary’s Meals’ mission and a talk from Geraldine McFaul, a Glaswegian who walked from her front door in Glasgow to Rome for Mary’s Meals, and a fundraising quiz at The Record Factory on Sunday, September 28.

The charity is also encouraging supporters to take part in the Kelvingrove Park 10K Run on Sunday, September 14 to raise funds.

To find out more about Mary’s Meals events throughout September, please visit www.marysmeals.org.uk/glasgow-events

Mary’s Meals’ low-cost approach means a hungry child can learn on a full stomach for just 10p. You can feed a hungry child every day for a whole school year for only £19.15. Please donate today: marysmeals.org.uk