Editor – When we first began serving Mary’s Meals to a few hundred children in Malawi in 2003 we could never have imagined how this work would grow. Today, more than 3 million schoolchildren eat Mary’s Meals in areas of great need across 16 countries.
In this troubled world, it is tempting to become cynical and despair of things ever getting better. In the unfolding of Mary’s Meals, we see much reason for hope and many reminders of the goodness of people. Those 3 million children ate at school today only because so many people are choosing to share some of what they have to make this possible.
I first met Lettie in 2012, a 12-year-old orphan and the sole carer of her two young brothers. All three of them were suffering chronic hunger. Mary’s Meals – through its promise of a daily meal in school – made it possible for Lettie to go to school for the first time.
Today, Lettie has completed her high school education and works for Mary’s Meals in Malawi. She is a remarkable young leader. Without the gift of Mary’s Meals, it is very unlikely she would have ever gone to school, and in her story alone (never mind the millions of similar stories) we see how this simple
serving of a daily meal is creating profound and lasting change in the world’s poorest communities. Mary’s Meals works!
Whilst we celebrate this milestone of reaching 3 million children, we are painfully aware that there are millions more waiting – many of them suffering just as Lettie was when I first met her. And so, we go forward, one child at time, in our belief that in this world of plenty every child on the planet should at least be able to eat one meal each day in school.
On behalf of Lettie and millions like her, I want to thank all of you who are already supporting this work, and I wish also to invite those of you who are not yet involved, to consider helping us to feed even one more child. Thanks to the many thousands of volunteers who help to deliver our programme, it’s possible to provide a child with Mary’s Meals for a whole school yearforjust£19.15.
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
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow
Founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals
