Dragons and goddesses donate mugs for auction for Mary’s Meals

Sounds like a fairy tale and maybe it is. A dragon, a domestic goddess, a money tree, a fantastical nanny and a storyteller – among others – have raided their kitchen cupboards to support the Dalmally charity Mary’s Meals this Christmas.

Duncan Bannatyne, Nigella Lawson, Chris Tarrant, Emma Thompson and Alan Titchmarsh are some of those who have donated a mug to ‘Mugs for Mary’s Meals’. This is an online auction – starting on Monday November 30th, raising money for the charity which provides a meal a day, in school, to children in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Some chose to send a new mug. Others have donated old favourites. Chris Tarrant sent a Dusty Bin mug from the Seventies and Eighties game show 3,2,1, while Radio 2 DJ Mark Radcliffe gave one celebrating the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester.

Other contributors include sporting names such as Everton manager David Moyes; former Celtic champion Stevie Chalmers; authors Philippa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl) and Freya North (Secrets).

A signed London mug was a gift from the Mayor, Boris Johnson and a blue spotted mug was donated by violinist Nicola Benedetti. Presenter Kirsty Wark took time out on a recent trip to New York to shop for a mug from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Staff at the charity’s office in Argyll have been collating donations and enjoyed guessing who had sent which mug from the designs and the packaging – while one supporter sent their mug neatly folded in coloured tissue paper, another recycled a Magners cider box. So start guessing.

Mary’s Meals provides school meals for 375,000 children around the world, giving them essential nutrition and an incentive to study. In Malawi, where the charity feeds more than 10 per cent of the primary school population, each child is given a daily serving of likuni phala – a vitamin enriched maize porridge, which is served in a plastic mug.

‘A mug has become something of a symbol of our work, which is why we have chosen it as the theme for our auction’, says Ruth Black, one of the charity’s founders. ‘Each child is responsible for their own mug, which ensures that they get a fair portion every day, and they take great care of them – I remember seeing one little boy who carried his on a string around his neck to make sure that he didn’t miss out’.

The Mugs for Mary’s Meals auction starts on Monday 30th November – see the mugs, and bid for them then here.

Mary’s Meals is also selling Calendars and Christmas cards from its own website.

For information contact Louisa McLennan:

• by email at: louisa.mclennan@marysmeals.org
• by phone at 01838 200605.