A Scottish based school meals charity is now feeding more than two million of the world’s poverty-stricken children.
Mary’s Meals provides school lunches to the world’s poorest children across 19 different countries.
The Argyll-based charity will mark the two million milestone in a remote desert region of Turkan in Kenya – an area where just some of the school meals are provided to help nourish hungry kids.
Founder and chief executive, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, said the milestone was an “an amazing moment in the Mary’s Meals story” and thanked people who donated for their “overwhelming” generosity.
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He said:” I thank you with all my heart on behalf of each of those children, for every bit of hard work, for every gift given, for all those unique things each person brings to this enormous Mary’s Meals’ table.
“For every one of those children that ate today, many more are still waiting for Mary’s Meals to come to their school, so we go on. But this happy day shows us that this vision of ours is possible.”
Originally starting its operation in 2002, with a feeding scheme for school pupils in Malawi, the charity have gone from feeding 200 children living in poverty to 2 million in just under 20 years.
Now Magnus McFarlane-Barrow says that a third of primary schools in Malawi are fed by Mary’s Meals local volunteers.
Gift, an 11-year-old primary school pupil from Zambia, is now fed by the Scottish based school meals scheme, but before he was skipping classes to scavenge for scraps.
He said: “I want to make a better future for myself. School is the only way to do that. When I finish school, I want to be a doctor and I want to be in a position where I can help my family.”
Mary’s Meals will mark the massive occasion with an online event at 7pm this evening.
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