Scottish Catholic Observer

Mary’s Meals is now feeding 923, 572 of the world’s poorest children every day they attend school. In the last few months, the charity has been able to add close to 30,000 new children to its global school feeding programme, thanks to the unrelenting efforts of supporters who give as much as they can—time, money, skills and prayer—to help the communities in which they work.

All of these acts of goodness bring Mary’s Meals closer to realising its vision for every child to receive one daily meal in their place of education. Yet, in a world where 57 million children are out of school and thousands are dying each day due to hunger-related causes, the charity, which sets up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest countries, recognises that there is still much to do.

Mary’s Meals began in Malawi in 2002 feeding just 200 children. Twelve years later, relying on kindnesses from across the world, it has made it over the 900,000 mark and is incredibly close to reaching a major milestone—one million children being fed every school day.

Across 12 countries, including in conflict-gripped South Sudan and Ebola-hit Liberia, Mary’s Meals is bringing hope to poverty-stricken children in a number of challenging contexts.

Each of the children enrolled in its programme is receiving a nutritious daily meal and sitting in a classroom gaining an education, which is their best hope of escaping poverty in later life.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, said: “In the communities where we serve Mary’s Meals, so often the poorest children can’t go to school because they’re working, begging on street corners, or just doing whatever it takes to put the next meal on the table. They therefore miss out on their education, which is the key to lifting the world’s poorest communities out of poverty.

“We hope others who share our vision will help us on our journey to reach the first million children with Mary’s Meals.”

It costs Mary’s Meals a global average of just £12.20 to feed a child for an entire school year. The charity spends a minimum of 93p of every £1 donated directly on its charitable activities.

For further information on Mary’s Meals, please visit www.marysmeals.org.uk

Mary’s Meals is delivering food aid to thousands of people affected by the Ebola outbreak in Liberia—including patients infected by the deadly virus—following the launch of an emergency relief effort.

Under normal circumstances, Mary’s Meals reaches more than 128,000 impoverished children across Liberia each day, attracting them to the classroom with a nutritious meal in school. However, the recent crisis has brought a temporary halt to the charity’s feeding programme in the country, with all schools now closed.

Striving to make effective use of its resources, expertise and significant community standing in Liberia, the Scottish-based charity has now launched an emergency response to the Ebola outbreak by distributing food to children in their homes.

Mary’s Meals is also reacting quickly to requests from embattled health care workers to provide much-needed food aid to suspected Ebola sufferers. Meals are being distributed at three holding centres in the townships of Tubmanburg, Robertsport and Brewerville.

The charity has been working in Liberia since 1997 at the height of the country’s violent civil war.

Its crisis response has already seen around 10,000 children receive emergency food rations in their homes and is focused on two counties, Grand Cape Mount and Bomi—both of which have been cut off from the capital Monrovia by military blockade.

The state of emergency declared by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has led to the establishment of quarantined zones and the restriction of people’s movements. As a result, there have been widespread reports of soaring food prices, increased hunger and a general rise in food insecurity across the region.

Mary’s Meals staff on the ground are working closely with community leaders to deliver and monitor the emergency food distribution programme. They are also routinely giving best practice information and advice on preventing infection from the Ebola virus.

At least 2200 people infected with Ebola have died so far this year across Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, with Liberia suffering the most hardship by far. The World Health Organisation has declared the crisis an international health emergency.

The extraordinary measures ordered by the Liberian Government mean that schools will remain closed until further notice.

Whilst delivering school meals is the charity’s prime focus, it has a long history of providing emergency relief assistance, including during the East Africa famine in 2011 and following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

— www.marysmeals.org.uk