1.3 million plates of hope

We’ve got some amazing news – Marys Meals is now feeding 1,361,586 children in 17 countries every school day!

Back to all stories | Posted on 09/10/18 in Announcement

Thanks to the generosity of supporters from around the world, we’ve been able to reach an additional 104,308 children with life-changing meals – and begin feeding at 199 new schools and education centres – since March this year.  


Those enjoying Mary’s Meals for the first time include vulnerable children in prisons in Madagascar, little ones attending nursery in the deserts of northern Kenya, and pupils at five new schools in war-torn South Sudan.  

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, our founder and global chief executive, said: “It is wonderful that more than 1.3 million children are now receiving Mary’s Meals every day at school. All over the world, people are sharing what they have so that children might eat. I feel humbled each day by people’s goodness – especially by the tens of thousands of unpaid local volunteers who cook and serve these meals.”

Most recently, we’ve started serving meals in Madagascar, where children as young as eight face malnutrition and appalling conditions in overcrowded prisons. We have partnered with Grandir Dignement – an organisation that provides education and vocational training – to feed vulnerable children attending classes at four prisons in the Antsiranana and Antananarivo regions.  

In South Sudan, where years of violent conflict has caused a food crisis affecting more than six million people, we work closely with our local partner, the Diocese of Rumbek, to deliver life-saving school meals to desperately hungry children. As growing numbers of children flee fighting in other parts of the country, we have expanded our school feeding programme to reach pupils at five new schools in Eastern Lakes and Western Lakes states.

Open quote mark It is wonderful that more than 1.3 million children are now receiving Mary’s Meals every day at school. Close quote mark
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Mary's Meals founder and global chief executive

Earlier this year, we began feeding a further 6,019 children at 27 schools in Haiti, through a new partnership with Summits Education. We have also grown our feeding programme in Kenya and are now serving nutritious daily meals to more than 3,500 additional pre-school children at 30 nurseries in the drought-prone Turkana region of the country. 
 
Magnus added: “To have reached so many more children in six months is astonishing. And these are children living in some of the most difficult situations on earth, situations that might even seem hopeless.  
 
“But we know from experience that these meals do not only meet the immediate need of the hungry child, they also enable them to grow up, well-nourished and well-educated, to become the young men and women who will lift their communities out of poverty one day. Our vision, that every child in this world receives at least one good meal every day in their place of education, burns more brightly than ever.” 
 
Mary’s Meals began feeding just 200 children in Malawi in 2002. Today, we provide life-changing meals to more than 1.3 million children from some of the most vulnerable communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean.  
 
We are also working with our longstanding partner in India to deliver food aid to thousands of families affected by the recent, devastating floods in Kerala.  
 
With your help, we can continue to reach the next child waiting for Mary’s Meals.