A message from Magnus - Serving over 3 million children across the globe
Read a thoughtful message from Magnus as we mark the milestone of serving over 3 million children a nutritious meal in their place of education, every school day.
Noku arrived at Libeni Primary School for the first time on her mother’s back. As well as being unable to walk, four-year-old Noku was non-verbal, unable to feed herself and dressed in no more than rags. Her mother is currently unable to find paid work and all too often there is no food at home for Noku and her nine siblings. Despite these undeniable challenges, our School Feeding Officer Thandekile saw Noku as “a child with possibilities”.
Thandekile is one of our passionate colleagues who supports communities in Zimbabwe to deliver school feeding. She understands that a daily mug of porridge served at school is a gift that can change everything.
And Noku’s life has indeed changed in a remarkable way in the months since she started school.
At first, she relied on her loving mother and older siblings to carry her on the 1km daily journey from home. Each day, she received a nutritious mug of porridge thanks to the local volunteer cooks, and the many donors giving what they can to fund these vital meals.
As time went on, Noku grew stronger. Her teacher, Mrs Majo Sithokozilethe, is sure that Noku was seriously malnourished when she first met her, and that simply eating nutritious porridge every school day has brought about this remarkable change. She says: “Noku is now healthy and like any other learner in the class, but when she arrived she was very weak. She now walks to school from her home and is full of life. She is a great storyteller and loves to share her stories first thing in the morning with me and the class.”
Noku is indeed ‘a child with possibilities’.
As we celebrate the quite incredible fact that 3 million children are now eating Mary’s Meals every school day, we might consider that each one of them is a child with possibilities. And equally, so are all those millions of children still waiting for Mary’s Meals. Sometimes that important truth can be obscured when a child is unable to speak or get to school without help. In those situations, very little seems possible.
If, like me, you find it hard to envision a number like 3 million – or the collective possibility of such an enormous number of transformed lives – you might today just want to think about this one little girl in Zimbabwe. The story of Noku is the story of Mary’s Meals; one that begins with an act of love by a mother and does not yet have an ending – just a multitude of astonishing possibilities.
God bless,
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow Founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals
It costs just £19.15, €22, $25.20 USD or $31.70 CAD to provide a child with school meals for an entire school year. Learn how the promise of a daily meal at school enables the children we serve to receive an education.