The Mini Vinnies and chaplaincy teams from St Cuthbert’s Trust were inspired by the work of Mary’s Meals for their fundraising during Lent.

Mary’s Meals is a Scottish charity that has been providing meals for children in some of our poorest countries since 2002. 

That’s when founder Magnus McFarlane-Barrow met a lady called Emma on a trip to Malawi. Emma was dying of AIDS and lay on the floor of her hut surrounded by her six young children. Emma said all that was left for her was to pray that someone might care for them after her death.

Magnus asked her eldest, Edward, what he hoped for in life. He replied simply: “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”

Edward’s words helped inspire the founding of Mary’s Meals, which aims to provide chronically hungry children with one meal every school day.

Mary’s Meals now feed more than two million children a day in their school. It costs only £15.90 to provide one meal a day for a child for a year.

Pupils were so inspired by the work of Mary’s Meals that they decided to do what they could to help. 

That was how “40p for 40 days for 40 children’s meals for a year” was born. We are also very aware of how the last few years have been hard on lots of families, so we decided to ask for as little as we could, a penny a day for 40 days.

We hope that by involving every school in the St Cuthbert’s trust, we will be able to feed 40 children for a year. Every class, staffroom and reception in every school has a collection pot for donations.

As Sadie at St Anthony’s said: “Every penny helps!”