Scottish Catholic Observer

Mary’s Meals have received a booster of £425,000, thanks to the generosity of the People’s Postcode Lottery, which will help them to provide nourishment to some of the world’s poorest children.

Part of the funding will go towards 9,000 impoverished children across the world.

The remainder is set to help Mary’s Meals, named after Our Lady, grow as a charity in order to reach out to more children at risk of starvation.

Tracey Black and Gilli Chrystal, players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, joined Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow, the charity’s chief exectutive, and Callum Aitken, programmes advisor with the People’s Postcode Lottery in Dalmally where the charity began, in order to break the good news.

Mr Macfarlane-Barrow said: “We are incredibly thankful to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for sharing in our belief that every child should have enough to eat and an education. Together, we are giving hungry children the chance to fulfill their hopes and dreams for the future.

“The generosity of players means that 9,000 hungry children will eat a meal in school today and, looking to the future, many more young lives will be transformed by this wonderful gift.”

Mr Aitken of the People’s Postcode Lottery said it was ‘incredible’ that players have raised over £1.2 million to date for Mary’s Meals.

Having started out helping a small group of 200 Malawian schoolchildren in 2002, the charity have now branched out to countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Haiti, Syria, and Lebanon to name a few, with 80,000 volunteers in Malawi alone today. In total, the charity feed 1,257,278 children across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mr Aitken added: “I think it’s really great that winners of the lottery have had an opportunity to meet with a charity they are helping to support to understand the impact of funding.

“Mary’s Meals has gone from strength to strength since its beginnings in Dalmally and everyone at the lottery is humbled to play a part in this charity’s story.”

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