Scottish Catholic Observer

Mary’s Meals has been awarded match funding by the UK Government for a special three months’ appeal in a move that will double donations made to the charity founded in Scotland and named after Our Lady.

During the charity’s Feed Our Future appeal, which runs until 28 December 2015, the UK Government will double all personal donations made by UK residents, up to £5 million.

Mary’s Meals Feed Our Future campaign aims to extend the charity’s successful feeding programmes to more hungry children across Malawi and Zambia.

It comes at the end of a great year for the charity that gives children in some of the world’s poorest countries a nutritious meal at school. In May the charity announced that it had reached the milestone of feeding one million children every school day in countries around the world. The Shed That Fed a Million Children book by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow (above standing), the founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, also became a Sunday Times bestseller this year.

The cost to feed a child for a whole school year through Mary’s meals has been set at just £12.20 since 2014. The UK Aid fund-matching grant from the UK Government means that a single donation of £12.20 made between

September 28 and December 28 2015, will significantly feed not one, but two children for a whole school year.

This will allow Mary’s Meals to extend its school feeding operations in both Malawi and Zambia where 108,818 hungry children have already been identified in great need of help. With the funding boost from the government, it is hoped the Feed Our Future appeal can raise enough to reach all of those children.

Mr McFarlane Barrow said the match funding was ‘just brilliant news,’ adding that it was amazing that Mary’s Meals was already ‘reaching more than one million children with feeding programmes across four continents, but with 59 million children still out of school and chronically hungry, we believe our work has just begun.’

The Feed Our Future appeal has also received significant support from transport operator Stagecoach Group. The

company will help advertise the Feed Our Future campaign across the UK.

Sir Brian Souter (above), Stagecoach Group chairman and co-founder, said he was delighted to get involved. International Development Secretary Justine Greening said ‘investment in children is an investment in the future of Africa.’

— Visit https://www.marysmeals.org.uk; call 01838 200605 or write to Mary’s Meals, Craig Lodge, Dalmally, Argyll, PA33 1AR

— [email protected]

—This story ran in full in the October 9 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.