The work of Mary’s Meals grew out of the Marian shrine, Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In 1992, the MacFarlane-Barrow family launched an appeal to help the people of war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina. They did this from their home in Argyll, Scotland: Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer. Craig Lodge is a Catholic retreat centre that the MacFarlane-Barrow family were inspired to open after a family pilgrimage to Medjugorje in 1983.
Donations of food, clothing, blankets and medicine flooded in, and the first batch of aid was delivered to refugee camps near Medjugorje.
The family was overwhelmed by the generous response of the public, and what was meant to be a one-off delivery of aid developed into a rapidly-growing international charitable organisation. From feeding just 200 children in Malawi in 2002, by 2021, Mary’s Meals was reaching more than 2 million children every school day.
Those involved in the first Mary’s Meals projects were all people whose lives had been changed by pilgrimages to Medjugorje. They chose, therefore, to name the organisation in honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
We consist of, respect and reach out to people of all faiths and none.
