When Jeremy Deedes, Director of Planning for Life, asked Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary's Meals, what he could do to help, Magnus started by expressing his view that governments are corrupt because people are not educated enough to hold them to account. He described how he sees Mary’s Meals and the principle of feeding linked to education as being a long term solution to this which ultimately can bring peace to the regions in which Mary's Meals operates and drag them out of poverty.

Magnus described how Mary's Meals is almost one hundred percent reliant on volunteers working in fields as diverse as logistics and information technology (as well as cooking) to help turn his dream into action. Magnus asked us for help with five P's - prayer, publicity, pounds, pens and paper.

Which gives us all plenty of opportunities to help Mary's Meals.

Even if prayer is not your thing, your thoughts and interest in their activities will help. Don't just give and forget; give and remember and discover what's happening by subscribing to the charity's newsletter.

You can talk to your friends and colleagues about Mary's Meals. Word of mouth is the charity's chief method of publicity. They don't spend money on advertising and publicity. They rely on us to spread the word for them so consider using the email icon to forward these pages to family, friends and colleagues.

Pens and paper, and a range of other items necessary for living, eating and education, can be delivered to children through the Backpack Project, a companion but important and highly rewarding activity of the Charity. Through the project children who come to school can get a backpack full of goodies donated by you. You could do your own and could volunteer to act as a collection point for other backpack donations in the region.

And you can help us to raise money for the cause.

At Planning for Life we are working, in association with the St Alban's Centre (SAC), the fitness centre at Ampleforth, to raise £7,000 in 2010 to fund the construction of a new kitchen at a school in one of the regions in which Mary's Meals operates. SAC runs the Ampleforth 7-mile race through Gilling Woods, which has be supported and sponsored by Planning for Life since its inception. The race this year is run on 10th October. Please join in and support us if you can. Last year SAC and PFL between them raised over £1,300 to help in the reconstruction of the Gilling Village Hall. We certainly want to beat that this time.

On 19th September Jeremy Deedes will again run the 13.2 miles from Newcastle to South Shields - the Great North Run 2010. Jeremy has in the past often raised around £2,000 from this event, often for educational causes. This year he is looking for really serious support, so if you have even a little more than you need, please share it with those who lack even the most basic things. And if you have a lot more than you need, please share generously. Something as mundane as a kitchen in a school can be really life changing if you have no food and no education.

Please give through Jeremy's Just Giving website or click on the link below.

Thank you,

Jeremy

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