It costs Mary’s Meals just 7 pence to give a child a meal, and therefore 7p from each copy sold on Friday will be donated to the charity – enough to provide meals for more than 180,000 children, say the publishers.
And in a first for The Scottish Sun, there will be two different versions of Friday’s front page next to each other on the newsstands. They will have the same message of hope, but one will feature a little girl with her meal and the other a little boy.
Tomorrow, the Scottish Sun opens the doors to its Christmas pop-up charity shop in Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre. Last year, Susan Boyle launched The Scottish Sun’s first charity shop – a number of stars helped out and £10,000 was raised for charity in just three days. This year, the shop is open for a week, and proceeds will be shared between Mary’s Meals and the Rainbow Valley charity.
Rainbow Valley was set up by Angela MacVicar after her daughter Johanna died of leukaemia aged 27. They aim to open a centre dedicated to helping people living with cancer. Welcoming the opening of the pop-up shop on Saturday, Lindsay MacCallum, Project Development Manager for Rainbow Valley, said: “We are thrilled that The Scottish Sun pop-up shop is happening again this year. Last year was fabulous.”
Previewing Friday’s special edition of the paper, Scottish Sun editor Alan Muir said: “Mary's Meals spoke to us about their work and showed us a film of the children they are helping. It just breaks your heart.
“Then, when you are told that 7p – just 7p, a figure you probably wouldn't bother to bend down and pick up if you dropped it in the street – can feed a starving kid for a day, you know that you have to do something.
“That's why we are donating 7p from every paper sold to the charity.
“It's an absolute honour for us to be able to make this gesture to Mary's Meals. It means that on Friday our loyal readers will be feeding a child simply by buying their favourite paper.
“We're aiming to make lots of seven pences this Christmas. And we know that our brilliant readers will support us, whether just by picking up a copy of the paper or by coming into our pop-up charity shop in Glasgow's St Enoch Centre from Saturday to bag a bargain and join in the fun.”
Daniel Adams, Executive Director, Mary’s Meals UK, said: “We’re very excited that The Scottish Sun has chosen to support Mary’s Meals in this way. Our work in 15 countries, with some of the world’s poorest communities, is reaching more than 1.2 million children with a nutritious meal every school day, helping each child to gain an education and the hope of a brighter future.”
