Scottish Catholic Observer

Mary’s Meals has announced it is now feeding more than 900,000 schoolchildren.

In the last four months, the charity has been able to add close to 30,000 new children to its global school feeding programme.

The charity, which began feeding just 200 children in Malawi in 2002, is currently reaching 923,572 children every school day and is hoping to reach its first million in the first half of next year.

Mary’s Meals provides life-changing meals to impoverished children to draw them into the classroom where they will receive an education that can one day free them from poverty.

The charity works in 12 countries—including conflict-gripped South Sudan and Ebola-hit Liberia.

“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,” Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, said. “They therefore miss out on their education, which is the key to lifting the world’s poorest communities out of poverty.

“Thanks to the unrelenting efforts of our army of supporters who give as much as they can—time, money, skills and prayer—to help the communities in which we are working, we are moving closer to realising our vision that every child receives 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 because of hunger-related causes, there is still so much for us to do. 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, visit www.marysmeals.org.uk or follow the charity on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #makeitamillion