Pope’s Scottish visit to benefit poorest children

A Glasgow-based charity which provides school meals for hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest children will reap the benefits of the Pope’s visit to Glasgow.

Mary’s Meals, based in Springburn, and Marie Curie Cancer Care have been chosen as the official charities of Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to Scotland on September 16.

More than 100,000 pilgrims from Scotland, the north of England and Ireland are expected to descend on Bellahouston Park for the open-air mass.

The visit is expected to net Glasgow’s economy around £4.5 million and at least as much again in publicity because of the global audience watching on television and the internet.

Mary’s Meals has grown from its first feeding operation of 200 children in Malawi to a worldwide campaign, providing free daily school meals to about 400,000 children in countries including Albania, Romania and Uganda.

Teams of volunteers from Mary’s Meals and Marie Curie Cancer Care will be collecting donations before the parade to mark the feast of St Ninian on Edinburgh’s Princes Street, prior to the Pope’s motorcade through the city centre.

Pope Benedict will meet the Queen at Holyrood Palace before being driven through the centre of Edinburgh and then to Glasgow for the mass at Bellahouston Park.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of Mary’s Meals, said: “The St Ninian’s Day parade promises to be a wonderful event, bringing together people across Scotland to welcome the Pope on his visit.

“Mary’s Meals is thrilled to have been chosen as one of the charities to benefit from the celebration, and our staff and volunteers are looking forward to being involved on the day.

“Any monies raised by Mary’s Meals will help provide school meals for hungry children in some of the world’s poorest countries, enabling them to access education that will help them to escape poverty in the long term.”

Paul Thompson is head of community fundraising in Scotland and Northern Ireland, for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

He said: “With tens of thousands of people expected to turn out for the parade and the Pope’s journey through Edinburgh, it’s a fantastic opportunity to raise substantial funds for the services we provide to people with cancer and other terminal illnesses here in Scotland.”

SIC: GET