MARY'S MEALS
October 2024
This communication was received from Marie Doyle, Interim Executive Director at Mary's Meals following on from our donation to the charity.
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Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your previous gift of £1,228 to Mary's Meals. Your kindness is bringing food, joy and hope to children who eat Mary's Meals. Allowing them to make the most of their education and giving them a chance at a better future. We've recently witnessed the life changing impact donations like yours can have. In Ethiopia where we have rapidly expanded our feeding programme to reach more than 110,000 childrfen in the war torn drought stricken Tigray region. Across the world more than 2.4million children in 17 countries including Ethiopia, Haiti and South Sudan are sitting in classrooms with full stomachs and learning how to read and write. This is thanks to supporters like you.
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Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support which is providing children with hope and the promise of a better tomorrow. With your gift, we strive to reach the next child waiting for Mary's Meals.
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On behalf of the Mission Group, many thanks again everyone. It was a wonderful total realised.​​
September 2024
The Mission Group would like to extend their gratitude to everyone who helped make the fundraising coffee morning (held earlier this month) such a success.
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Thank you to all those who helped at the tearoom, baked and came along to support the event. Thank you too, to all those who kindly handed in donations. The wonderful total of £1228 has been raised to date. This includes £100 from the Mission Group mid-week tea bar and donations from the Sunday tea-bar as well.
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Thank you again everyone for continuing to support the charity in their vital work of feeding hungry children. Our donations will feed approximately 64 children for a whole school year based on the cost of £19.15 per child.
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In the words of CEO, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, many thanks again
for all your little acts of love.
October 2023
Our fundraiser event for Mary's Meals was held on Sunday 10th September. This was a joint venture with our friends from Kilsyth Anderson Church. Jim Watt, a speaker for Mary's Meals charity, gave a very interesting address on the work carried out by the charity. Jim told us that meals are cooked and distributed at places of education by volunteers, which enables the children to focus on their studies which in time gives them better life opportunities. Jim also told us that it costs £20 which as he put it, is the cost of 2 fish suppers, to feed a child for a year. That is a very humbling fact.
After the service we retired to the large hall where we enjoyed tea, coffee and home baking.
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The magnificent sum of £1,133 was realised on the day which was a fantastic amount. The money raised during the month of September from the Sunday teas will also be added in and a final total will be announced later.
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Thank you again to everyone who continues to support Mary's Meals both prayerfully and financially.
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The Mission Group​
September 2023
Along with our friends from Anderson Church, please join us for Mary's Meals Sunday on Sunday 10 September at the usual time of 11.00am.
We will be having Mr Jim Watt, a guest speaker from Mary's Meals to update us on the work of the charity. We hope to have the last part of our morning worship in the Peace Garden, weather permitting. This will be followed by tea/coffee and home baking in the large hall. There will be an opportunity to donate to the charity, if you wish to do so, as you retire from Church.
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All are warmly invited.
April 2023
Many of you have been in touch to say how sorry you are to hear that Mary's Meals are closing their charity shops. Daniel Adams, Executive Director of Mary's Meals has announce:
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"After much deep consideration, we have taken the very difficult decision to close our six charity shops and warehouse.
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In recent years, there has been a steady decline of income from our shops - while the cost of operating them has contined to increase. This means that sadly the shops are no longer a viable sourc of income.
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Every day, more than 2.4million children eat Mary's Meals at school. We are always guided by good stewardship and ensuring that we can continue to feed these little ones, whilst striving to reach the next hungry child. We are so grateful for the dedication of our shop and warehouse staff and volunteers to growing Mary's Meals wihin their local communities. Our expectation is that the shops will stay open until the end of September and we will keep the local communities updated as our plans progress.
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We hope people in these communities will continue to support us in any way we can; their generosity is helping to feed desperately hungry children in the world's poorest countries and, at a time when we are responding to the devastating earthquake in Syria, it has never been more needed."
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I know many of you were frequent visitors to the shops and you will miss them. As a church, we will continue to support the Charity in the best way we can. In the last six months alone, between the Pancake Coffee Morning in October an the Remembrance Tree at Christmas, we have already given the fantastic amount of £1,255.
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Thank you for your continued interest and support of Mary's Meals.
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Mary Paterson