Molly Leigh-Moy: Mary's Meals

Mary’s Meals is a charity dear to the heart of many Rotarians. Today Molly Leigh-Moy from the charity came to tell us about its work.

The origins of Mary’s Meals can be traced back to the early 1990s when its founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, and his brother Fergus were so moved by reports of suffering during the Balkans conflict that they loaded a jeep with aid and travelled as part of a convoy to Medjugorje to distribute it. On their return donations continued to flood in and Magnus ended up driving between his home in Argyll to Bosnia-Herzegovina 23 times. On his return he left his previous job as a fish farmer and started a charity called Scottish International Relief.

On a visit to Malawi in 2002 during a famine. One of the boys he met told him “I want to have enough food to eat and to be able to go to school one day.”. On his return Magnus established Mary’s Meals, which took over from Scottish International Relief.

Originally Mary’s Meals provided school meals for about 200 children attending two schools in Malawi. In the 20+ years since then the charity’s work has expanded considerably. It now works in numerous countries in the Global South, feeding over two million children every school day. Wherever possible the food is sourced locally and local volunteers, often mothers and grandmothers of the children, do the cooking.