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How Mary's Meals complements
'A Curriculum for Excellence' and 'Every Child Matters'
Learning about those who benefit from Mary’s Meals projects and the lives that they lead, is a great tool for learning about global citizenship and developing citizenship skills, by discussing the part that we have to play in international society. By forming Mary's Meals committees and giving pupils the responsibility to promote the projects themselves, pupils can learn valuable communication, teamwork, and presentation skills, as well as building their own confidence and creating a sense of achievement by seeing the real difference that their work is making to the lives of others.
A project can also foster a real sense of school pride, bringing together all ages, with the one goal of helping others hence, promoting the under pinning values of your school. A Mary’s Meals project can be an exciting whole school learning experience, creating excellent opportunities for Interdisciplinary Learning, a key feature of A Curriculum for Excellence.  |
A Curriculum for Excellence
Participation in the Backpack Project or Mary’s Meals fundraiser can enable pupils to show that they are:
responsible citizens (participating in cultural life as they learn about their own country and others)
effective contributors (communicating in different ways and in different settings and helping other children in practical ways),
confident individuals (able to relate to others in different situations) and
successful learners (developing their openness to new thinking and ideas as they learn about different approaches overseas).
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Every Child Matters
It will help children to be healthy (learning how nutrition is provided in Mary’s Meals schools) to enjoy and achieve (trying out new activities and gaining new skills), to achieve economic well-being (learning about budgeting and those who survive with less money than they do) and to make a positive contribution (giving their knowledge, resources and time).
Using second hand goods in the Backpack Project can also be part of the Eco-schools initiative. We encourage the inclusion of good quality second hand goods in the backpacks, therefore keeping the cost to the contributor as low as possible. Visit www.choose2reuse.org.uk for more resources on re-using goods.
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Backpack Project
Feeding in schools equips children to get the education that should enable them to feed themselves in the future. The Backpack Project supports the feeding programme by providing basic school materials necessary to go to school and learn. Any groups, young or old, can take part in the Backpack Project, a great low-cost way to help young people attend school.
If you are collecting backpacks for us, you might also be interested in collecting out of date or outgrown football strips for us, another great way to donate in a cost free way. Click here for more details
Mary’s Meals Day
Try holding a day where hunger and poverty are explained to the pupils. If the school includes a breakfast provision, then serve a bowl of porridge to each child (or even Likuni Phala, the nutritious porridge served daily by Mary's Meals in Malawi, if the ingredients are available), and impress on them that for children who benefit from Mary’s Meals, this is all they would be getting for the whole day, and these are the lucky ones!
After explaining this to the pupils, and showing the Mary’s Meals DVD, ask them if they would be prepared to give what they would spend on treats, as a donation to Mary’s Meals instead? On this day you could also hold sponsored silences, read-a-thons, sports events or something more creative? See our Fundraising Brochure for more ideas and information.
Mary’s Meals Ambassadors
Would your senior pupils benefit from becoming Mary’s Meals Ambassadors? They could visit local nurseries or primary and secondary schools, local churches or community groups, and business leaders, to tell them about charity and what they are doing to support it.
If you are interested in this, please contact schools@marysmeals.org for more information and resources on training your ambassadors, and to find out who in your area may already be involved.
Mary's Meals Committee
Your older students could form a Mary’s Meals Committee. This will give them a taste of what real boardrooms are like! Let them set a fundraising strategy, take over the organisation of the backpack collection, approach local businesses for support and write press releases for local publications to highlight what they are doing.
They could designate a Chairman, a Finance Secretary, Press Officer, a Fundraising Spokesman etc. Great for a CV as this crosses Business Management, Presentation and Marketing Skills as well as practical experience in finance and citizenship while developing interpersonal skills. You may find it valuable for your lower achieving pupils. For committee members, and for Mary’s Meals ambassadors we have t-shirts available!
Please contact schools@marysmeals.org if you are forming a committee and would like some t-shirts.
For older Primary and Secondary committees in certain areas in the UK, we will provide experts in one or more of these specialist areas to come to the school and talk to the pupils about how to organise their committee and problem solve. A certificate of achievement to recognise their work is available for those pupils in the committee at the teacher’s discretion.
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"Working with Mary’s Meals has given us a ‘window’ to life and the challenges faced daily in developing countries – creating an excellent context for us to embed a ‘Global Citizenship’ dimension in our curriculum."
Tony Begley, Holyrood Secondary School
Schools Writing Competition
Thank you to everyone who entered this year’s competition. You can see the winning entries here
Recycle for Mary's Meals!
Would your school be prepared to put a collection box for old mobile phones in your class or canteen? We can recycle them and put the proceeds towards Mary's Meals funds.
Another way to support Mary’s Meals without incurring any cost whatsoever, is available if you are in the Scottish central belt i.e. if you are within reach of our van which is based in Glasgow. We can re-sell any old textiles and put the proceeds towards Mary’s Meals funds.
Just two bin bags of textiles on average equates to £6. When it costs £6.15 to feed a child for a year in Malawi, you can see how far your old rags, clothes, curtains, shoes and handbags can go to feeding and educating a child abroad.
How about taking part in the Change Challenge? Click here for more information.
Or if Sponsor A School is too big a target, how about Sponsor A Class? Set a fundraising target of £2000 to support a “virtual” class. This means, for example, your Primary 7 class could support roughly 300 Primary 7 pupils in Malawi for a year. Develop an understanding of what a day would be like in the life of a pupil in this class using the lesson plans and resources available.
Letter Exchange
In order for those children who support and benefit from Mary’s Meals to get an insight to each other’s lives, we are now running a letter exchange. Pupils in Liberian and Malawian schools are now writing letters and pictures to send to schools in the UK, and we would like to invite you to do the same in return.
We cannot transfer letters to and from specific schools, and due to restricted resources in these schools, we can only provide a limited number of letters or pictures to each school here in the UK. For more information please contact schools@marysmeals.org.
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Primary & Secondary School
Resource Downloads - New resources coming soon !
 10 minute PowerPoint*
Morality Discussion PowerPoint*
* In order to access the accompanying notes, please save these directly to your computer then open from there.
 Fundraising Brochure
Recycle for Mary's Meals Poster
Reading Comprehension Passage
Colouring Pictures
20 facts about Mary's Meals
 Feeding the Future Short Film (School Display Board Format -FLV file - 48 mb)
Backpack Journey Short Film (School Display Board Format -FLV file - 28 mb)
 Mary's Meals and Backpack Photos (110 mb)
Age 4-11 Teaching Resources:
Age 4-6 lesson plan - general
Age 4-6 lesson plan - Religious and Moral
Age 7-11 lesson plan - general
Age 7-11 lesson plan - Religious and Moral
Flag Exercise
Word Search
Age 11-18 Teaching Resources:
The Heaven Shop reading topic
(Coming Soon)
Age 11-13 lesson plan - General
Age 11-13 lesson plan - Religious and Moral
Age 14-18 lesson plan - General
Age 14-18 lesson plan - Religious and Moral
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Backpack Project
Feeding in schools equips children to get the education that should enable them to feed themselves in the future. The Backpack Project supports the feeding program by providing basic school materials necessary to go to school and learn. Any groups, young or old, can take part in the Backpack Project, a great low-cost way to help young people attend school.
If you are collecting backpacks for us, you might also be interested in collecting out of date or outgrown football strips for us, another great way to donate in a cost free way. Click here for more details
Try holding a ‘Mary’s Meals Day’, where hunger and poverty are explained to the children. If the Nursery includes a breakfast provision, then serve a bowl of porridge to each child (or even likhuni pala if the ingredients are available - see recipe opposite), and impress on them that for children who benefit from Mary’s Meals, this is all they would be getting for the whole day, and these are the lucky ones!
After explaining this to the pupils, and showing the Mary’s Meals DVD, ask them if they would be prepared to give their sweetie/ biscuit/ pudding intake for the day in the form of a donation instead?
Pupils could run other fundraising events by forming an Enterprise Committee, let them make the decisions on how the event should run, and get them to make posters to advertise it. See our Fundraising Brochure for more ideas and information.
Christmas Cards, Calendars and Gift cards
We also have Christmas cards, gift cards and calendars available through our head office (T: 01838 200 605), do you think the pupils could sell them to parents and locals? Could you sell them at your nursery Christmas fair?
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"At Glenwood Nursery School, parents and children responded with tremendous enthusiasm to our appeal to fill and recycle a backpack. The children were involved in making informed choices and decisions. They became more aware of the needs of children from other cultures and backgrounds. They are the responsible citizens of today who will grow into the responsible citizens of tomorrow."
Karin Gilhooly, Glenwood Nursery
Recycle for Mary's Meals!
Would your nursery be prepared to put a collection box for old mobile phones? We can recycle them and put the proceeds towards Mary's Meals funds.
Another way to support Mary’s Meals, without incurring any cost whatsoever, is available if you are in the Scottish central belt i.e. if you are within reach of our van which is based in Glasgow. We can re-sell any old textiles and put the proceeds towards Mary’s Meals funds.
Just two bin bags of textiles on average equates to £6. When it costs £6.15 to feed a child for a year in Malawi, you can see how far your old rags, clothes, curtains, shoes and handbags can go to feeding and educating a child abroad. See Nursery downloads opposite for a poster to advertise this.
Letter Exchange
In order for those children who support and benefit from Mary’s Meals to get an insight to each other’s lives, we are now running a letter exchange. Pupils in Liberian and Malawian schools are now writing letters and pictures to send to schools in the UK, and we would like to invite you to do the same in return.
We cannot transfer letters to and from specific schools, and due to restricted resources in these schools, we can only provide a limited number of letters or pictures to each school here in the UK. For more information please contact schools@marysmeals.org. |
Nursery Resources Downloads
10 minute powerpoint for teachers
Colouring pictures to download
Likuni Phala Recipe
Recycle for Mary's Meals Poster
Flag Exercise |
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Mary's Meals University Fundraising Groups
While anyone can choose to promote and fundraise for Mary’s Meals, if you are a student at one of the following Universities, then you have the opportunity to be part of one of our official Mary’s Meals University Fundraising Groups. The universities are: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews, and Newport University in Wales.
It is a great opportunity to work alongside a successful and renowned international charity, to test your marketing, communication and motivational skills, and to use your time at uni to do something to be really proud of! It's also fantastic for your CV.
The aim of each group is to raise awareness of the charity on campus, and to fundraise for Mary’s Meals funds.
For each university we will appoint a Lead Fundraiser, who will have the chance to earn a trip to see one of our projects overseas.
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University Resources Downloads
University Fundraiser Role Description
University Fundraiser Application Form
Fundraising Brochure
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| More fundraising ideas and resources are available from our fundraising website www.marysmeals.org/Fundraising |
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