Mc Farlane Barrow Magnus

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow is the Founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals.
Mary’s Meals is a humanitarian organisation dedicated to providing school meals to children in some of the world’s poorest countries. Its main purpose is to encourage these children to attend school, where a nutritious meal helps them receive an education and access future opportunities.
Currently, Mary’s Meals distributes meals to more than 2.6 million children in countries where hunger and poverty still prevent children from getting an education.
The early years
In 1983, a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina rekindled faith in Magnus’ family, leading his parents to invest their pensions to create a Catholic retreat centre called “House of Prayer”.

Magnus began his working career as a farmer in Argyll, Scotland. In 1922, during the conflict in the Balkans, he and his brother Fergus, deeply affected by the scenes of war they saw on television, decided to join a convoy and distribute basic necessities.

Upon their return, donations continued to increase, leading Magnus to travel 23 times from Scotland to Bosnia and Herzegovina to distribute the goods collected. Magnus never returned to his job, deciding instead to start a charity called Scottish International Relief (SIR).

How Mary’s Meals was born
In 2002, during a humanitarian mission in Malawi, Magnus met a 14-year-old boy named Edward who changed his life. Edward was the eldest of six siblings, all living together with their HIV-positive mother who was dying. Magnus asked Edward what he hoped for in life, and Edward simply replied, ‘I would like to have enough food and be able to go to school one day.’

This simple conversation was the inspiration behind the creation of Mary’s Meals. Starting with the donation of around 200 school meals to some of the children of Malawi in 2003, Mary’s Meals now provides school meals to more than 2.6 million children.

That humble hut where the first donations began continues to be a place of inspiration and Magnus’s office.

Mary’s Meals is the result of a simple idea: a daily donated meal in schools has a positive impact on enrolment, attendance and attention in the classroom.