A Scots charity that provides daily school meals for hundreds of thousands of the world’s most impoverished children has been nominated for a major
prize at the UK charity sector’s most prestigious awards event. Formerly known as Scottish International Relief, the charity has grown from its first feeding operation of 200 children in Malawi to a worldwide campaign, providing free school meals daily to over 330,000 children daily in Albania, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Malawi, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Liberia, Zambia, Haiti, India, Philippines, Burma and Thailand. Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow founded the charity in 1992 during the Balkan conflict when he and his brother Fergus organised a local appeal for blankets and food, filling a jeep with aid and delivering their cargo to Medjugorje in Bosnia. It became Mary’s Meals after a trip to Malawi in 2002. The Charity Award judges recognised the “outstanding work in helping to combat world hunger” carried out by Mary’s Meals, which addresses not only the immediate needs of hunger, but also helps educate children to escape poverty. Judges include John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, Maeve Sherlock OBE, former chief executive of the Refugee Council, Dame Jo Williams, former chief executive of Mencap, Paul Winter, chief executive of The Leadership Trust, and Venu Dhupa, former arts director of the British Council . The event, held in London on June 11, will be hosted by the BBC’s Jeremy Vine.
Daniel Phelan, organiser of The Charity Awards, said: “Mary’s Meals has already demonstrated that it is among the best-managed charities in the UK and I wish everyone involved the best of luck on the night.”