Mary's Meals provides food for one million children

The Mary's Meals charity has revealed it now provides one million children in some of the world's poorest countries a meal every day they attend school.

The Argyll-registered charity, which began in Malawi in 2002 by feeding 200 children a day, now works in 12 countries across four continents.

The group set up community-run school feeding programmes.

They encourage children who may otherwise be forced to work or beg to come to school.

One of the areas to benefit from the Mary's Meals project is Machinga in Malawi.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary's Meals and its chief executive, joined government officials and village chiefs at the Chirimba Primary School in the region to celebrate the landmark.

Marita Wyson, a 14-year-old pupil at the school, said: "We are so happy to be receiving this food in school. When you feel hungry, it can be difficult just to stand up in the morning.

"But the phala [the vitamin-enriched maize porridge Mary's Meals serves in Malawi] is making a huge difference.

"It makes me feel strong and I am able to understand what my teachers are telling me. My grandmother doesn't have to worry so much about how she will provide food for me and my sister."

The charity said it is now feeding 1,035,637 children across the world in countries including Liberia, Kenya, Zambia, Haiti and India.

Mr MacFarlane-Barrow said: "It is quite remarkable.

"It would not be true, though, to say that I never expected our work to grow so big. I have long felt that the vision of Mary's Meals is so compelling, and people of goodwill so numerous, that it must be fulfilled.

"As I stand here in Malawi today, meeting all the children at Chirimba Primary School who are the latest to receive Mary's Meals, I am struck by the fact that this landmark can be regarded as no more than just 'the first million'."

Mary's Meals began in 2002, when Mr MacFarlane-Barrow visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS.

The charity has said enrolment and attendance rates at schools supported by Mary's Meals increase dramatically after the introduction of feeding, with children registering for school rising by an average of 24% in Malawi.