We are looking to recruit an Education Coordinator, who will report to the Head of Supporter Care.  The successful candidate will work with schools and other organisations involved in education to raise awareness about the charity’s work, develop and sustain a strong network of supporters and generate funds for our school feeding projects overseas.

They will be responsible for devising, developing and delivering Mary’s Meals’ fundraising strategy in an education context and should be equally comfortable in both school and corporate environments.

This post would suit an applicant with a degree in a relevant subject and experience in an education environment.  Excellent communication skills and knowledge of school environments and curriculum demands are essential requirements. The successful candidate will be expected to have a vocational approach to their work.

37.5 hours per week. Salary is dependent on relevant experience. The role is based in Glasgow, with some UK travel.

Download full job description >>

To apply, please send a current CV with a covering letter to: jobs@marysmeals.org

Closing date: Monday 4th June 2012.

Hannah Weddell from Mary's Meals in Newcastle

Mary’s Meals has teamed up with the Tesco Great School Run to help provide more hungry children with a brighter future, and the event literally got off to a flying start earlier this week!

Popular TV presenter Helen Skelton joined award-winning athlete Colin Jackson to take to the skies in a helicopter tour around the country, to launch the UK’s biggest fun run for children.

Joined at each stop of the tour by an ambassador from Mary’s Meals, the stars visited four UK regions – Belfast, Newcastle, Birmingham and London – to cheer on hundreds of youngsters from local schools as they completed the two kilometre run.

Over 1.25 million children in total from across the UK will participate in runs between May 8 and July 23. Now in its eighth year, the event and its accompanying education programme encourages children and their parents to get fit and healthy through exercise and healthy eating.

And, as part of the run, the pupils are fundraising for Mary’s Meals, the official charity of the Tesco Great School Run. It is a great way of getting young people active while helping to support children in some of the world’s poorest communities, where hunger and poverty prevent them from getting an education.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Mary’s Meals founder and CEO, said: “We are delighted to be the official charity partner of this year’s Tesco Great School Run. The money raised by kids taking part in fun runs across the country will help Mary’s Meals reach more hungry children, who live in communities where hunger and poverty routinely prevent them from gaining an education. Since it costs us just £10.70 to feed a child for a whole school year, any amount raised can go a long way to making a big difference.”

Colin Jackson and Helen Skelton

Helen Skelton, who is well-known for her role as a Blue Peter presenter, said: “The Tesco Great School Run is a great way to get children excited about running and enjoying sports. It’s fantastic to be involved and to see so many children from the local area coming together and taking part in the fun run.”

Colin Jackson, who has worked with Tesco on the project since its origins, enthused: “Today is all about getting children engaged in exercise, talking about healthy eating and having fun along the way. In a year where sport takes centre stage, it’s great to see kids enthusiastic about learning and taking part in sport and exercise.”

Registration is open until Friday 25 May 2012 to schools only and teachers are encouraged to sign up online at www.greatschoolrun.org. Schools that register will receive a teachers’ pack through the post containing race numbers, a poster and a teachers’ guide. Schools that complete the Tesco Great School Run will be entered into a prize draw with a chance to win sports equipment and kit or VIP Great North Run and Junior Great Run experiences.

MARY’S MEALS FOUNDER MAGNUS MACFARLANE-BARROW CONTINUES TO WRITE ABOUT HIS TRIP TO THE US

The next morning Patty and I arrived in Dallas, home of cowboys, JR Ewing, oil wells and a certain young lady called Abigail Gibney who has recently galvanised her high school and many others into action for Mary’s Meals.

McKinney High gave us an incredible welcome and was branded from top to bottom with Mary’s Meals posters and welcome signs. Teachers and students wore T-shirts proclaiming ’11 dollars’ (the amount it costs to feed a child for a year) and leather bracelets inscribed with ‘A Simple Solution’ on them.

Together they have already raised enough to sponsor a school in Malawi and in the process have introduced Mary’s Meals to several other High Schools in Texas. I would like to think Abigail could run Mary’s Meals one day but I think she might be too busy being President of America or something.

Her dad is an old friend of mine from Scotland and it was a blessing to spend a night with the amazing Gibney family, before heading the next morning to Florida. Here we had an appointment at Ave Maria university. We had a wonderful time speaking to a group of students here who have recently formed a global awareness club.

It was also a privilege to meet Jim Towey the university President who was once a very close friend and helper of Mother Teresa. The next morning it was an early flight to lovely leafy, Charlotte in North Carolina, home of Tom and Mary Lynn Moser, who are board members of Mary’s Meals USA.

They hosted a lovely evening event at which I had the chance to tell lots of nice people about our work. That group is also raising money to provide Mary’s Meals to another whole school in Malawi.

Next day, back in New York, I visited Grassroots who are making an amazing film about our work. Ana Laffont (another board member of Mary’s Meals USA) Patty and I watched a couple of short sections of the film that are now nearly complete.

Our friends from Grassroots wanted to know immediately what we felt but we were unable to speak for some time afterwards. Emotional wrecks after three mins, we wondered what effect the complete 26 min film will have. ‘Don’t worry there will be some funny bits too.’ they said. I’m sure there will be, because Mary’s Meals is like that.

Patty, our US co-ordinator, picked me up at the airport and we headed straight for a Jazz Club in Manhattan. On the way there she showed me a letter she had just received from an inmate in a prison in Kansas. ‘Although we are in prison we have not lost our humanity’ read the letter and he explained how he had organised a collection from fellow prisoners. A cheque for over 1,000 US dollars was enclosed.

I was really moved. Just a couple of days earlier I had been speaking to an old friend, a chaplain at a prison in England, where inmates are also collecting for Mary’s Meals. It seems we are right when we say EVERY person can choose to do something for Mary’s Meals.

It was still early when we arrived at Swing 46 and the club was empty, apart from Judith, the owner, who we had come to meet. She greeted us warmly and we chatted at the bar. She plans to do monthly events for Mary’s Meals here and raise funds for a new kitchen. She thinks it is high time Mary’s Meals became better known in New York and she aims to do something about it! I left feeling very confident she will do just that, and many people will have a good time in the process.

From there we drove over to Harrington Park in New Jersey arriving just in time for Mass at a little wooden church called Our Lady of Victories. It was Sunday, and the feast of the Divine Mercy, and the church was packed. My old friend Brother Francis was there. He recently painted a remarkable 8ft high version of the famous Divine Mercy image and this picture was displayed at the front of the church.

The priest, Father Conrad, invited me to talk for a couple of minutes at the end of Mass about Mary’s Meals and as they left the church, the people responded in a beautiful way, asking questions about how they could help and stuffing a little basket full of donations. I slept that night at the presbytery and early next morning, with the enormous picture strapped to the roof of his car, Brother Francis drove me to the airport.

The transportation of this unusual cargo reminded us of the times, 20 years ago, when together we would drive a battered small truck around Scotland collecting all kinds of donations in order to transport them to the refugees in Bosnia.

Mary's Meals founder Magnus.

Around 200 people from all walks of life attended Mary’s Meals’ first open day in England.

The event marked a 10-year celebration of Mary’s Meals, a global movement which sets up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities, where poverty and hunger stop children from gaining an education.

School children, volunteers and supporters were among those who attended the recent family event which included an update from Mary’s Meals founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, who spoke passionately about some of the children he recently met on a visit to the charity’s projects in Malawi, Kenya and India.

He described how Mary’s Meals was giving those children an opportunity to learn and fulfill their hopes and dreams.

At one point, Magnus stopped short from telling another story when he realised he was running over time, however, there were shouts from the audience for more, which led him to talk about a young boy he met when he was visiting Kenya, which will feature in a film about Mary’s Meals due out later this year.

“We visited a rubbish tip near the main market area of Eldoret which houses the town’s street children population. The smell was unbelievable. Almost every child was high on glue used to stave off the hunger pangs and dull the pain of life on the streets,” explained Magnus.

“Out of this chaos, I met a young boy called Musty.’Take me to school. I want to go to school. Take me to school!’, were the first words Musty spoke to me. We couldn’t ignore his pleas, and thus began a story I will never forget and which, please God, has changed Musty’s life forever. But I will leave the details of that to the Mary’s Meals film.”

The Open Day, held at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, also included music from high profile musician Colin MacIntyre, who is the London co-ordinator for Mary’s Meals. He shared his amazing story of how a visit to a Mary’s Meals project in Malawi changed his life and later led him to work for the charity. There was also musical entertainment from a children’s choir from Muswell Hill.

Mary’s Meals recently opened an office in London at 188 St John Street, EC1V 4JY. If you would like further information on volunteering opportunities, please contact colin.macintyre@marysmeals.org

From the work of SIR, something very beautiful came into being – the birth of Mary’s Meals.

This campaign – to provide children with a square meal to give them nutrition and encourage them to go to school – became the main focus of the organisation’s work and grew rapidly around the world.

To reflect this, Scottish International Relief has officially changed its name to Mary’s Meals. This will help us stay focused on our vision of helping every child in the world to get at least one meal a day in a place of education.

This year Mary’s Meals celebrates its 10^th anniversary. A campaign which began in 2002 feeding just 200 children is now giving a life changing meal in a place of learning to more than 600,000 impoverished children every school day.

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist and author Jeremy Paxman – perhaps best known in the UK for presenting the BBC’s Newsnight programme – has been getting to grips with what it’s like to be a volunteer Mary’s Meals cook.

The famously incisive interviewer visited Nkolokoti Primary School in Malawi, where Mary’s Meals operates a school feeding project which provides a daily meal to more than 8000 children.

And, while there, Jeremy got the chance to stir a big pot of ‘likuni phala’ – the nutritious maize-based porridge Mary’s Meals now feeds to 500,000 children in the south-east African country every single school day and, in doing so, attracts them to a classroom where they can gain an education which will provide an escape route from poverty.

The reason for Jeremy’s visit to Nkolokoti was to film scenes for his documentary Empire, which sees him travel the world to explore many different aspects of the history of the British Empire.

While stirring his big pot of porridge, the competitive Mr Paxman – who also presents the BBC’s University Challenge programme – was heard saying to one of the dedicated Mary’s Meals volunteers: “Mine’s thicker than yours”.

Jeremy may have been a natural at stirring the porridge, but it takes much more than that to be a Mary’s Meals volunteer in Malawi.

Believing passionately that gaining an education will provide a ladder out of poverty, the volunteers – many of them mothers or other relatives – get up at the crack of dawn every school day and walk for many miles to help cook Mary’s Meals for their children. Some of them also stay on afterwards to help teach basic lessons.

Dorothy, a mother and volunteer cook from Malawi, says, “Before Mary’s Meals, children didn’t want to come to school. Now they come! Volunteering is hard work, but I really wanted to be part of this – so I could help my children become healthy and happy.”

(Pic credit: http://bit.ly/HfBmRH)

Mary's Meals Speaker James Kelly at Strath of Appin PS

The Primary 3 children from Strath of Appin have been working on a unit of study on Africa. They have been using Mary’s Meals’ website as a source of information, they also wrote to our Education Coordinator to find out more about Mary’s Meals and their work in Africa.

The children  also took part in the Change Challenge for Mary’s Meals and presented the first 4 bottles they had filled to Speaker James Kelly when he called at the school to visit them. To date the children have collected £72 through the Change Challenge and have placed a large plastic bottle in the school entrance way for visitors to also help with their Change Challenge.

Well done to Primary 3 and the whole school community for their efforts and good luck with the Backpack Project which the school will be starting shortly.”

Strath of Appin was one of many schools to take part in the recent Argyll & Bute Mary’s Meals week. Thanks to all schools that participated.

P7 pupils with Barr Safety Mascot and backpack items

P7 pupils at St Catherine’s Primary School in Paisley were working on their annual Mary’s Meals  Backpack Project when they were given an offer of help from local construction company Barr.   Barr worked with the enthusiastic P7s donating stationery items such as pencils, erasers, sharpeners, crayons and notebooks for the backpacks.

Barclay Chalmers, Managing Director of Barr Construction, said: “It’s great to see the pupils of St Catherine’s Primary School are so dedicated to working together to make life better for others. Their awareness and enthusiasm deserves to be rewarded and we were more than happy to send the equipment to help them out. Well done to all those taking part.”

St Catherine’s has in recent years  given a great deal of support to Mary’s Meals, supporting all our campaigns. including raising funds and participating in our World Porridge Day.

This year the Backpack Project and World Porridge Day were part of a  poverty theme being studied. All aspects of their studies are presented to the children as a problem solving challenge.

At a recent Global Citizenship Education  Conference in Edinburgh,  a group of P7s and their teacher Marie McLaughlin delivered a fantastic presentation about how they have used the study of the lives of the children supported by  Mary’s Meals  as a context for a great deal of learning.

More details and examples of their work can be seen at http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/education-zone/schools-resources/primary-resources/

Largs Academy - Pupils and Staff commit to build Mary's Meals Kitchen

Mr Jones went on to explain the many other creative ways in which the school and community intend to work together to raise the remaining funds required for the kitchen/feeding shelter.

• 6 members of staff will be running the Edinburgh Marathon
• Academy Music Concert  Friday 15th June at Inverclyde Sports Centre -with wind / brass instruments band and Jazz Band consisting of all 55 Music Students  from the award winning Academy music department.
• Bag Pack at Morrisons  Supermarket, Largs on Sat 16th June.
• A Fashion Show to be held in M & Co, Largs in7th November.

Since the above assembly and cheque presentation the school have raised a further £1000