Mary's Meals has reached a new milestone: Meals for more than three million children

The official announcement of this significant achievement will be made on September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Speaking to Vatican Media during the Rimini meeting, founder and CEO Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow said: "We feel called to stand with those parts of the world where people have no voice."

"Thanks to our support, more than three million children receive food at school every day." With these words, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary's Meals, shared the latest milestone in an interview with Vatican Media. The official announcement, titled "More than 3 million," will take place on September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, to which the charity is dedicated, but MacFarlane-Barrow wanted to announce the news in advance at the Rimini meeting and present it as a message of hope and reconciliation - a challenge that reflects this year's theme of "building in abandoned places with new bricks."

More than twenty years of growth

"When we started giving food to about a hundred children in 2002, we could never have imagined that our work would grow in such an extraordinary way," MacFarlane-Barrow explained. "The message I want to share today is one of hope: even in a world full of problems, good things can grow. A simple act can change lives and transform entire communities." This reflection was also the central theme of a panel discussion at the Rimini meeting entitled "Justice is not enough, we need love", where MacFarlane-Barrow joined Lord John Bird, Member of the House of Lords, and Marco Piuri, President of Fondazione Banco Alimentare ETS.

Bringing hope to neglected places

Mary's Meals is particularly active in places that are often neglected by the media and overlooked by international politics, but which are deeply affected by what Pope Francis has described as "a Third World War fought piecemeal." In Africa, the charity has expanded significantly in Malawi and Zambia, where it now helps more than 1.3 million and 600,000 children respectively, despite droughts, floods and economic crises.

In Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region, the number of children receiving food has increased from 30,000 to more than 245,000 in less than two years. In Haiti, against a backdrop of gang violence and political instability, more than 196 000 children now receive school meals every day. This year alone, Mary's Meals has managed to reach an additional 800,000 children compared to 2024, an extraordinary increase.

But the need remains huge: 71 million primary school-age children are currently out of school, a figure higher than the total number of primary school pupils in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada combined. Research has repeatedly shown that effective school feeding programmes are a strong motivator for children to attend school.

The joy of simplicity

The strength of the project lies in its simplicity: safe and nutritious school meals that promote attendance and thus create new opportunities for the future. For MacFarlane-Barrow, the deepest satisfaction lies in this: 'We feel a calling to be present in parts of the world where people don't have a voice. We want to accompany these communities for many years - especially when the media forgets them. A meal at school can change how people see their future. And perhaps most inspiring of all is to accompany young people - their creativity, their faith, their hope."

A gift for the Virgin Mary

It is in this spirit that MacFarlane-Barrow explains the choice of 8 September for the official announcement. "We chose this day because we want to dedicate this gift to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary's Meals belongs to her and we want to celebrate her birthday in this way. It will be a happy day."

Guglielmo Gallone - Rimini

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