Today we welcome a very special guest to LibraryLoveFest to share some exciting news. Say hello to Jean Marie Kelly, publisher of Harper360, who has come to talk about Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow and The Shed That Fed a Million Children.
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One of the books presented at the HarperCollins adult buzz at ALA Midwinter earlier this year was The Shed That Fed a Million Children, about the founding of Mary’s Meals, a charity based on the simple idea that if you give a child one meal a day in a place of education, you can begin to change the world. They have programs running in 13 countries including Malawi, Haiti, Liberia, Kenya, and South Sudan. The book is going on sale on May 26 but today the organization reached a huge milestone: they are now feeding 1 million children every school day. And it all began with one man, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, and a shed in the Highlands of Scotland.
Last night I stopped at the store on my way home to grab some things for dinner: some pasta, a can of tomatoes, parmesan cheese, some salad fixings. The total at the register came to a little over $19.00. And it struck me that $19.50 is the amount that Mary’s Meals says it costs to feed a child in Malawi or Liberia or Haiti for one year. And I was going to eat that in one night! It got me thinking about the things I take for granted in our world of plenty. But what can I, one person, do to make a difference? I think the lesson from Mary’s Meals is that one person can make a difference. And that one person can influence another person and that person influences the next. And so on.
So tonight instead of having my dinner, I’m going to donate the $19.50 to @marysmeals and hope you will help me #feeditforward I will post about this on Facebook and I’m going to ask three of my friends to do the same. Hey, it’s a lot easier (and drier) than pouring a bucket of ice water over your head!
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Thank you, Jean Marie, and a huge congratulations to Mary's Meals for feeding one million school children every school day! Let's see if we can help feed it forward. Please check out this link to learn more about how you, too, can donate to Mary's Meals and help provide food for children in need around the world.
-Amanda