Overview

The accompanying resource contains short excerpts from the bestselling book The Shed That Fed A Million Children, written by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow (founder of Mary’s Meals). The stories will help you learn a little more about Malawi and some of the people who inspired the work of Mary’s Meals.

This resource can help to improve literacy skills across all areas including speaking, listening, reading, writing and comprehension. Read the passage to gain an understanding of international issues and the amazing story of Mary’s Meals.

Where to begin? Page 3

Perhaps your students could read the passage  aloud and work through the questions in groups.

Suggested discussion questions

• What is the link between food and learning?
• Do you remember a time when you didn’t feel able to do something because you were hungry?
• Think about the reasons why so many poor children remain out of school or unable to learn.
• Look up the word highlighted in blue in the book resource and discuss or write down the definition.  

Group activity

Print out sheets with words like education, clothing, clean water, happiness and food and cut them out. Divide the class into groups, giving each group an envelope containing a full set of the words. Ask them to lay out the words in order of importance (most important at the top).

When they finish, they could walk around and see how other groups ranked the words then have a discussion about it all together. This will give you a chance to talk about the fact that if we don’t have food and clean water, then it’s more difficult to access education and other important things.