A letter from Magnus, our Founder and CEO

Within each child there are many wonderful things waiting to unfold – things that can make this world better.

While children may be our source of hope for a better tomorrow, we can be their hope for today. Of the tens of millions of children who are chronically hungry, many are at risk of hunger related illness and death. For them, unless they can be assured of food today, there is little point in talking about the future.

The UN’s goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 has gone from something laudable and achievable to a cause of collective shame when set against current progress. Nearly one in 10 people on the planet are now experiencing food insecurity. Over 20% of children under five are stunted – so undernourished that they’re likely to suffer permanently impaired development. And we know that many of these children are also being deprived of another vital key for unlocking their potential: education. Tens of millions of children are either missing school or are unable to concentrate in class because of hunger.

By providing a daily meal at school, Mary’s Meals creates a fundamental change in the lives of children who don’t have enough to eat and provides hope for today and tomorrow. And this hope feels even more important when those children are growing up in war zones and places of conflict, as many in our programme are. To see laughing children sit down together to eat in a safe place of learning is to see hope for the beginning of peace.

There comes a time when we need to stop with all this talking, all this goal setting, all this waiting for someone else to do something, and just act. Each of us can chose to do something. You and I, we can even stop child hunger. At the very least for one child, we can.

God bless,

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow

Founder of Mary's Meals