Mary's Meals

The History of Mary's Meals

Mary’s Meals grew out of a charity called Scottish International Relief (SIR), which was set up after Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow and his brother Fergus took aid from their home in Argyll, Scotland, to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, during the conflict in 1992.

Over the next 10 years, SIR expanded. It began building homes for abandoned children in Romania, helped returning refugees in Liberia by setting up mobile clinics, and continued to deliver material aid to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as funding many additional projects.

SIR relied heavily on the generosity of local people in the village of Dalmally in Argyll, Scotland, who diligently donated food, blankets and other items of aid, which were then stored in the family shed. That same shed still serves as the global headquarters of Mary’s Meals to this day.

Mary's Meals was founded in 2002

The Mary’s Meals campaign was born in 2002 when Magnus visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When Magnus asked her eldest son Edward what his dreams were in life, he replied simply: “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”

That moment was a key part of the inspiration which led to the founding of Mary’s Meals, which began by feeding just 200 children in Malawi in 2002. Today, we feed 2,429,182 hungry children every school day across 18 countries.

The charity is named in honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who brought up her own child in poverty.

8 year old William provides 10,000 meals to 50 children !

William aged 8 was provided with a Mary’s Meals money box to raise funds to help feed a child. He was amazed that just £19.15 would provide a child like himself with a daily meal in a place of education for an entire school year. 

He became inspired to take this message to his Primary School, who agreed with William’s request to launch an Assembly raising awareness to help feed and educate children, who otherwise would be forced to work.  William presented at the Assembly in front of 400 children and in his own words hoped “to fill not just one box but 400+ boxes; it doesn’t matter if you can’t fill the box, but every donation will help, either large or small”.  William gave a money box to each child at his school.

William has his own Mary’s Meals donation page and in a matter of weeks has raised £1,045 and counting.  He really is on a roll!  His school is part of an Academy of 17,000 children and William has plans!

 
William with just some of the returned money boxes

William knows the story of Kasupe Primary School in Zambia which has been fully sponsored through Mary’s Meals by the Rotary Club of Oadby since 2018.  He was very keen to be involved with the project and has donated £1,000 which has enabled the club to reach its target of £6,335.65 to provide a daily meal to each of the 331 pupils attending Kasupe.  His donation is providing 50 of these children with 10,000 meals. 

The difference one individual can make is profound.