CHARITY Mary’s Meals has received a £425,000 funding boost?thanks to the People’s Postcode Lottery.

Part of the funding award will be used to provide 9000 children living in poverty around the world with daily meals for a school year.

The remaining funding from players of the charity lottery will support the development of Mary’s Meals as it grows to reach more hungry children.

People’s Postcode Lottery players Tracey Black and Gilli Chrystal joined founder and global chief executive of Mary’s Meals, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, and Callum Aitken, programmes advisor with People’s Postcode Lottery, to celebrate the news.

Magnus said: “We are incredibly thankful to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for sharing in our belief that every child should have enough to eat and an education.

"Together we are giving hungry children the chance to fulfil their hopes and dreams for the future."

Mary’s Meals began feeding 200 children in one school in Malawi in 2002 and now reaches 1,257,278 children in their place of education.

Working in partnership with local communities, Mary's Meals provides school feeding in countries including Malawi, Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Syria and Lebanon.