The Global Journey of Mary’s Meals
A Scottish charity that began life in a rickety tin shed in the Highlands is now feeding more than three million children every school day, a milestone its founder says he “could never have imagined.”
Mary’s Meals, founded in 2002 by Dalmally native Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, started by feeding just 200 children in Malawi during a time of famine.
Today, the organisation reaches children across 16 countries, from South Sudan to Syria, providing daily meals that allow children to attend school, learn, and build a path out of poverty.
All from the same modest tin shed in Argyll that still serves as the charity’s global headquarters.
The growth is extraordinary: since January 2024 alone, Mary’s Meals has added around 800,000 children to its school feeding programmes, the charity’s fastest scale-up to date.
That expansion has included some of the world’s most unstable and vulnerable regions, including Tigray in Ethiopia, where years of civil conflict have devastated infrastructure and food supplies.
Children in flood-stricken parts of Malawi and Zambia, and those in Haiti caught between hunger and violence, are also now being reached daily.
Each meal costs the charity just 10p.
A donation of £19.15 is enough to feed a child for a full school year.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, who still lives and works in Dalmally, says the milestone is both humbling and urgent.
“When we first began serving Mary’s Meals in one small primary school in Malawi back in 2003, we could never have imagined that this would grow into a global movement now serving more than three million children every school day,” he said.
“And yet, at the same time, when we see how this simple, inexpensive intervention is helping to transform some of the world’s poorest communities, we have an urgent desire for it to grow faster and a belief that it can.”
The charity’s low-cost, locally-run model is built on community volunteers who cook and serve meals made with locally sourced ingredients, keeping costs low and impact high.
“We see that each time local volunteers begin to serve our school meals, hope enters in,” Magnus said.
“Children begin attending school for the first time because of the promise of a meal.
“And those who were previously too hungry to concentrate in class are now able to learn.”
Mary’s Meals relies not just on the communities it serves, but on a global network of supporters, including many across Scotland who raise money and awareness.
That support spans generations.
Last month, 11-year-old Lochlan McCole from Edinburgh climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise £1,000 for Mary’s Meals.
Later this month, 87-year-old great-grandmother Ellison Hudson will take on a 30-mile challenge on her tricycle to mark the charity’s latest milestone.
In a time when international aid budgets are shrinking and the cost of living continues to rise, Mary’s Meals is standing out for doing more with less and staying true to its roots.
Despite the progress, Magnus is urging more people to join the mission.
“Whilst it is an amazing thing that this work has grown to reach 3 million children, the sad reality is that tens of millions of children remain hungry and out of school,” he said.
“This very day, in a world in which we produce more than enough food for us all, thousands of children will die of hunger-related causes.
“It costs Mary’s Meals around 10p to serve one meal, and less than £20 to feed a child for a whole school year.
“And so, this landmark is less a celebration than it is a call to action.
“We invite every person of goodwill to join the Mary’s Meals movement so that our vision, that every child in this world receives one daily meal in their place of education might be realised.”
You can donate or learn more at: marysmeals.org.uk
