Give the Gift of School Meals this Christmas
Everything you need to know about Big Family Christmas.
For many of us, Christmas is a time to gather around the dinner table to feast, tell stories and create cherished memories with loved ones. Christmas is also a special time for Mary’s Meals, and with the festive season well under way, we’re inviting you to set a place at our virtual Big Family Christmas dinner table to bring hope to hungry children living in impoverished communities.
What is Big Family Christmas?
Our Big Family Christmas virtual table brings people together from around the world during the season of giving in a wonderful way – every place set gives a hungry child the life-changing gift of daily meals for a whole school year! There is no limit on the number of places you can set, so whether you’re gifting a place at the table to a colleague, family member or friend, or setting a place in memory of someone special, there’s room for everyone. More is always merrier – the more places set, the more lives being changed.
Mary’s Meals is already serving more than 2.2 million children every school day, but there are still so many hungry children waiting. You can join thousands of people all over the world in supporting our Big Family Christmas campaign and help to bring about our vision that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education. As a thank you for reserving your spot, you’ll receive a beautiful, personalised placemat that you can email, print, or pass on as a gift during this festive season. Your personalised dinner plate will also appear virtually beside hundreds of others on our Big Family Christmas webpage.
Together, we can reach the next hungry child
Today, the world is enduring a crippling hunger crisis. In the Horn of Africa alone, an estimated 37 million people are acutely food insecure. Your gift of £15.90 will serve a nutritious, locally sourced meal to a child in their place of education every school day. We know the provision of a daily meal incentivises children to attend lessons and finish school. It’s a simple idea that works. Working with the world’s poorest communities to serve these days meals is a step towards helping children to grow up healthy and educated and become men and women with the skills and strength to lift their communities out of poverty.
Support Mary's Meals this festive season
No matter where you are in the world, you can spread joy with Mary’s Meals this festive season, not only by setting a place at our Big Family Christmas table but with our magical selection of Christmas cards and digital gift cards that can be delivered straight to your door or email inbox.
To discover what’s on offer in your country, head over to the Mary’s Meals International website and click on the globe icon in the top right-hand corner to select your country website. If you are a UK, USA or German resident, all donations made to Mary’s Meals in the run-up to Christmas are being matched, meaning you can change the story for even more children this Christmas.
Please note, you must be over 16 years of age to donate to Mary’s Meals.
We're now feeding 2,429,182 children every school day.
But more than 67 million primary school-age children are out of school around the world. In order to survive, they have to work or beg. Even if they do make it into the classroom, hunger affects their ability to learn.