The ever-growing movement of Mary’s Meals: the people helping to realize our vision

We want to enable people to respond in the fight against child hunger in whichever way makes sense for them – by using what they have to make a difference.

The result, across our global movement, is a wealth of interesting and inspiring stories of creativity and determination as people find ways to use their own talents, skills, time and passion to participate in our work and help our charity move forward. All are welcome in the Mary’s Meals family, and we wholeheartedly believe that everyone has something important to contribute to the realisation of our vision.

Given that the organization began with just one man working in a shed (followed by a few others with laptops on their knees) it might seem strange that the Mary’s Meals movement has grown to welcome hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, spontaneously offering their time and talents to support our work. However, our open invitation – to get involved in whatever way you can – brings a diverse range of people together under the shared belief that every child should have a daily meal in their place of education.

Volunteer-led community action

Across the water in Ireland, there’s a thriving network of volunteers building grassroots support for our work, but they don’t tend to congregate in an office. Orlagh Buckley first heard about Mary’s Meals when her son’s school hosted a non-uniform fundraiser day. Keen to find out a little bit more about the cause, she watched Child 31 on the Mary’s Meals website and was instantly captured by the beauty of the message that school + food = hope.

She got in touch with her local supporter group in Dublin and volunteered to be their treasurer, collecting and counting any funds raised through events and ensuring that they are safely deposited with the bank and logged with the national office. She loves being involved with the Mary’s Meals group in her local area, but also relishes the chance to meet with other county groups at national events.

She told us about the best part of being a volunteer: “I think it’s meeting other volunteers during the annual Step by Step fundraising walk across Ireland and hearing their passion for Mary’s Meals, hearing about how they have different fundraising ideas and how other volunteers spread the word about Mary’s Meals – it’s a great family in Ireland for Mary’s Meals.” The Dublin group Orlagh is part of is one of 20 supporter groups across Ireland, all with hard-working volunteers who were collectively responsible for almost half of Mary’s Meals Ireland’s fundraising last year!

A daily meal for every child in school

Often the ripple effects from these groups inspire individuals to start their own supporter journey, like Geraldine Goherty, who heard about Mary’s Meals from a girl in her village and started to do a few small things to get involved before committing to sponsoring a school (raising enough funds to provide a daily meal to every child in the school for an entire school year).

When Geraldine recently retired from her job as Health Care Assistant at Portiuncula Hospital, where she had worked for 25 years, she insisted she didn’t want any presents or money and would rather raise funds for Mary’s Meals. Her colleagues suggested a coffee morning in her honour. She was amazed by the generosity shown and her retirement coffee morning brought in enough funds to ensure that 228 children can receive Mary’s Meals for a whole school year!

Starting something new

People’s willingness to get involved and use their own networks, skills and ideas to inspire more support for our work is a big part of what is driving this movement forward. We even know of some amazing examples where people have been so moved by our vision and mission that they have started raising awareness of our work in their own country where Mary’s Meals is completely unknown and established an affiliate organization to support the school feeding program.

Marcelina Bobkowska is one of the founding members of Mary’s Meals in Poland and has channelled her support of our work into creating the diverse, energetic and well-established movement we see in her homeland today. Marcelina's first encounter with Mary’s Meals was in the pilgrimage town of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina where she heard about a young musician from Cité Soleil in Haiti who received Mary’s Meals as a child and now supports other young people as they work towards achieving their dreams. This story left a lasting impression on Marcelina, and when she returned home from her trip, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she must get involved. After visiting the Mary’s Meals information centre in Medjugorje, Marcelina was put in touch with a woman named Joanna from Kraków who was already volunteering in Poland and together they devised an action plan to raise the profile of Mary’s Meals across the country.

It seems fitting then that Justyna, a young volunteer from Poland, also heard about Mary’s Meals in Bosnia-Herzegovina after stumbling on the youth festival in Medjugorje. She now gives her time to support with graphic design and loves that she’s able to use her skills to help others. She says: “Mary’s Meals completely changed the way I think about charity. First of all, it’s much more than a charity, it’s an international family. I believe in the why, how and what we do. I’m so impressed by how the communities operate in other countries and appreciate that we have the opportunity to have Mary’s Meals in Poland and make it grow. I’m so thankful that I can follow the idea of enabling people around the world to help the children who need it most.”

Only the beginning

And these stories that we know about only represent a fraction of what actually goes on in support of Mary’s Meals. Every small act that helps to spread the word about our work or inspire people to find out more or get involved in what we do is part of the beautiful, vibrant movement of people and communities that makes our work possible. We’d love to know how you heard about Mary’s Meals or what small act you have witnessed for our work that has inspired you!