Our Story
Generation Hope is a movement which has grown out of Mary’s Meals – itself a global movement which provides daily school meals to the world’s poorest children. Mary’s Meals is named after Mary the mother of Jesus and a fruit of Medjugorje. The same grace that gave life to Mary’s Meals, by transforming some small spontaneous acts of charity into an international initiative that has transformed millions of lives, is now giving life to this new, distinct mission, Generation Hope.
The story so far...
Mary’s Meals is a response to the hungry child. So is Generation Hope. As a work of love, Mary’s Meals addresses the immediate, physical need of the hungry child for food. As a work of love, Generation Hope addresses the most fundamental need of the spiritually hungry child for God. It is the same love.
​
Many children in the world today, certainly in ‘the West’, are starving spiritually, suffering a crisis caused by a lack of meaning and purpose or an understanding of who they really are - beloved children of God. Sometimes they are so starved spiritually they do not know they are hungry – or at least do not know what they are hungry for. It was the recognition of that particular suffering that prompted the founders of Mary’s Meals to start this new work of Generation Hope – just as twenty years previously Mary’s Meals had been born in response to an encounter with a malnourished child.
​
Generation Hope provides these children with an experience of joyful witnessing to the truth of the Gospel and offers them an introduction to Our Lord Jesus.
​
Generation Hope is a fruit of Mary's Meals but is an entirely separate organization.
Our History
2002-2018
Since founding Mary's Meals in 2002, Magnus MacFarlane Barrow observed over the years that many young people who were passionately serving Mary’s Meals did not appear to be practising a living faith and often seemed to have little or no knowledge of Jesus and His love for them. This was true even of many attending Catholic High schools. In their questions - ‘Who is Mary? What happened to you when you went to Medjugorje? Why did you decide to do those things?’, he began to feel God moving him towards something new. In those young people he could see a different hunger than the one Mary’s Meals was serving: a hunger for meaning, a hunger for something better and ultimately a hunger for God. And this hunger left unfed was just as devastating and dehumanising as the malnutrition experienced by children in the world’s poorest nations.
2018
We began in 2018 by hosting small retreats called ‘Our Daily Bread’ for high school groups in Scotland. These retreats were incredibly blessed with many young people encountering God’s Love. On these 3 day retreats we accompanied the teenagers (11-16 years of age) on a journey starting with their desire to feed the hungry child with school meals and moving towards Jesus the Living Bread – and His desire to feed us. The fruits were clear: prayer groups began in schools, young people undertook works of charity on behalf of Mary’s Meals, and one school even organised a pilgrimage to Medjugorje (alas it was cancelled because of covid). Then along came pandemic and everything stopped.
2022
The desire to help young people come to know Jesus only grew so in 2022, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow formed a new charity called Generation Hope to progress this vital ministry.
2023
We held our first ever Summer Camp in Cairn Brae, Perthshire. God moved in an extraordinary way during these five days and we saw the young people have transformational experiences through encountering His love and mercy.
2024
The following summer we ran two Camps, serving nearly 200 teenagers from Scottish Catholic schools. We continued to develop the 'Generation Hope Journey' and began Gen Hope Groups in two schools. We visited these schools fortnightly and delivered follow up ministry in which we continued to walk with young people who had attended Camp by growing in friendship, giving input and providing opportunities for them to put their faith into action through service. This was made possible by a team of volunteers who were dedicated to bringing this ministry to life.
2025
In the summer of 2025, we ran three Camps back-to-back. Following the end of Camp season, we dove immediately into a full week of school ministry and topped it off by hosting a Reunion in Glasgow for the youth of Generation Hope. We are currently visiting seven schools on a fortnightly basis where we deliver our follow up ministry. We built our first staff team at the beginning of this year. We will host four Camps in 2026!