This year, people from all over Ireland joined our walk to Knock, to raise awareness and vital funds to help feed hungry children in some of the world’s poorest communities. A group of 9 devoted Mary’s Meals Dublin Supporters were just one group who took part in the walk this year. The enthusiastic bunch donned in blue, walked from the Spire in Dublin City and headed west for 23km in the sweltering hot summer’s heat to Lucan and back.
Walkers set off from four other starting points across the country. Participants on each route covered more than 200 km as they made their way to County Mayo. Covid-19 restrictions presented some challenges this year due to this the walk finished before reaching Knock.
Aoife Martin, walker says “We all can do our little bit to help relieve the plight of hungry children living in poverty. I can’t think of a better, more worthy cause than Mary’s Meals in which to do so – it really is a simple solution to world hunger”
Elena O’Dowd age 15, walker says “It was a fun day, I was happy to take part and raise awareness for the cause of helping children in extreme poverty”
With the restrictions, we were unable to hold bucket collections along the routes this year. Mary’s Meals relies on the kindness and generosity of the Irish people. €18.30 will feed a child for a whole school year and at least 93% of each donation goes directly to our charitable activities. The Dublin group of Mary’s Meals Volunteers raised €12,083.86 through sponsorship from family and friends. Aoife Martin and Orlagh Buckley presented Audrey Mc Mahon of Mary’s Meals Ireland with a cheque for this amount at their office in Marino last week.
Mary’s Meals is a story of hope. We believe that every child should have enough food to eat and be able to go to school. We work with some of the world’s poorest communities to set up school feeding programmes in places where hunger and poverty can stop children from gaining an education. We provide daily meals in school to encourage children – who might otherwise be working or scavenging for food – to gain an education that can offer them a route out of poverty. Our school feeding programmes are owned and run by local communities.
So, we are kindly asking you to consider donating, if you wish to donate you can do so by logging on to marysmeals.ie/donate or you can. Text Joy to 50300 “Text costs €4. Mary’s Meals will receive a minimum of €3.60. For more information visit marysmeals.ie
Pictured in main image; L-R: Maria Lindsay, Orlagh Buckley, Jimmy Murphy, Helen Curry at the Dublin-Kildare border in Lucan Demesne
