Mary's Meals' mission moulded by Medjugorje

More than 30 years ago, two brothers from Aberdeen, Scotland, loaded up a Jeep with supplies and headed to the ravaged streets of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Taking a week’s leave from work with nothing more than food, clothing and some additional aid for those affected by the ongoing Bosnian War, they expected to return to their ordinary life as fish farmers in Argyll. One of the brothers, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, never quite did.

Today, he moves with a similar quiet urgency, albeit on a far wider horizon. The man who once delivered aid from borrowed trucks is the founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, a movement that continues to provide daily school meals for more than three million of the world’s poorest children. 

What began as a single act of mercy has grown into a global work of love, sustained, he insists, by a measure of Catholic faith that first took root in him on a pilgrimage with his siblings to Medjugorje in 1983. He shared how that moment has never left the centre of his story.

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“The pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Medjugorje was something that had a profound impact on my life and renewed a faith that left us with a desire to really find and live in a new, deeper way,” he said. 

“My parents could see how much we'd changed through that pilgrimage, and they went a few months later and felt called by God to turn our family home into something of a Catholic retreat house where people began coming to spend time in prayer around the Blessed Sacrament,” he said, speaking to Scotland’s Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer that still operates today. 

None of that history is disconnected from the mission and vision of Mary's Meals today, which spans 16 countries as a fruit of said prayer. His current office and the charity’s global headquarters remain the original shed sitting next door to that very house of prayer. 

MacFarlane-Barrow and his brother Fergus would return from Medjugorje deeply moved by those affected by the Balkan conflict, with donations of food and clothing continuing to pour in. As MacFarlane-Barrow recalls, he was then faced with an important decision. 

“I remember praying about it and decided to give up my job and sell my house. Somebody gave me a truck, and I kept going. I said to God at that point, as long as there's a need and as long as people keep giving, I'll keep doing this,” he said. 

His two barometers followed, leading him to found Scottish International Relief, which provided various forms of emergency aid for the next 10 years. In 2002, however, Mary’s Meals as we know it would be born out of an emergency feeding project in Malawi, where MacFarlane-Barrow was invited by a local parish priest to visit the sick.

There, in the southeastern African country devastated by a famine that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, he met Emma, a starving mother of six children. 

“She was lying on her floor, and I began talking to her oldest child, Edward, who was sitting beside her. I asked him what he hoped for in his life, and his answer was enough food to eat and to go to school one day, that was it,” he recalled. 

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“That gets you thinking about the horrible cycle of poverty that so many millions of children are still trapped in today, where hunger is preventing them from gaining an education. It’s a vicious cycle, as basic education is the key to lifting the world's poorest communities out of that poverty.” 

From that point on, the charity, deliberately named after and entrusted to the Blessed Mother, would focus solely on a school-feeding model beginning with 200 children in Malawi. That figure has since grown to more than three million, delivering nutritious meals in schools across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

MacFarlane-Barrow reflected on the sheer growth seen over the last 24 years. 

“There is a profound sense of gratitude to God and to the people all over the world who are making this happen, but also a not-so-happy side because there is a far greater number of children than that who are still waiting today,” he said, referencing estimates of 66 million children currently out of school because of hunger. 

“This work has only just begun, and with a greater sense of urgency than ever to reach the next child, as there's not one good reason why any of God's children should go a day without food or be deprived of an education because of hunger.”

His ongoing fire and sense of mission remain the same, if not greater, than it did when he was a humble fish farmer more than three decades ago. The global team still deliberately operates in some of the world’s harshest places, Haiti, South Sudan and other conflict zones and areas with poor infrastructure. He shared his appreciation for local partners seen in dioceses, missionaries, community organizations and local volunteers who cook and serve the meals every day.

His thanks extends to faithful around the world who have supported this grassroots movement. 

“They have helped us stay committed to being a low-cost organization. Our cost per child works out to around $35 to feed a child for a whole year, or about 11 cents per meal. That lends itself to anyone being able to do something, and I love that aspect of our work,” he said.  

MacFarlane-Barrow remains optimistic about Mary's Meals future. Amidst the beautiful full-circle development of young adults who were once sustained by meals as children now becoming ambassadors, advocates, even staff, he looks forward to the broader Mary’s Meals' family continuing to grow richer and more beautiful in the coming years. 

“ The hallmark of Mary's Meals is faithfulness to this simple mission, and keeping the promise to all those children already in our program every day while  continuously finding ways to get into new places,” he said. 

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Even before that growth is fully recognized, MacFarlane-Barrow’s own measure of the work remains disarmingly simple, yet fiercely alive.

“ The day I don't feel the way I did on that day in 1992 would be the day I go and do something else. This is a work of love for the children, and everything we do derives from that. In some ways, that sense of urgency and passion to see this grow only gets greater,” he said. 

A version of this article appeared in the September 20, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Mary's Meals' mission moulded by Medjugorje"