In March 2013, Scottish actor Gerard Butler flew to Monrovia to meet children in a school that Mary’s Meals feeds daily— a program that began in 2006 as emergency relief and has since delivered more than 260 million meals to Liberia’s children, growing to 95 000 pupils every school day by 2026.
Mary’s Meals runs in five counties—Bong, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, and Montserrado—where remote schools rely on volunteer cooks to serve rice and peas each day. Because of poor road networks, the organisation sometimes must order food from distant markets weeks in advance to keep snack lines open during the rainy season.
Butler’s engagement dates back to 2010, when he presented founder Magnus MacFarlane‑Barrow with a CNN Heroes award. He later received a Cinema for Peace Honorary Award in 2020 and used his platform to spotlight the feeding program, saying that a meal at school "is a simple intervention capable of transforming lives."
Mary’s Meals will celebrate its 20th anniversary in October 2026 and plans to expand coverage to additional remote communities, while still grappling with Liberia’s lingering poverty and food insecurity that keeps more than half the population below the poverty line.