Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Always keen to support worthy charities, the caring staff at Kent Blaxill builders’ merchants have gathered together a total of 16 backpacks for Mary’s Meals.
Mary’s Meals is an amazing charity that works in a very simple but effective way. It works to provide a daily meal in school, so helping to meet the immediate needs of hungry children and encourage them to gain an education that can help them out of poverty. 
Mary’s Meals are currently feeding over 1,504,471 children!
Kent Blaxill organisers Monica Hartley & Carol Evers have been collecting the equipment to fill the backpacks and other members of staff have contributed towards the content. These backpacks not only contain school equipment and hygiene items but an outfit and shoes for the children to wear on the often-long walk to school.
Monica Hartley from Kent Blaxill said “We are thrilled this has become an annual event for the company and that my colleagues are continuing to be so very supportive. It is such a simple idea, but their contributions will make such a massive difference to children living in poverty’.
A spokesperson for Mary’s Meals said: “We are so grateful for this generous donation of backpacks. For many of the children, the backpack they receive from supporters like Kent Blaxill is the only gift they have ever been given. Many children receiving Mary’s Meals don’t have basic learning equipment or even clothes to wear to school, so this support is helping these children to realise their full potential and go to school equipped with the necessary educational items.”
The backpacks now leave Kent Blaxill’s Layer Road site in Colchester and go to one of the 12 countries where Mary’s Meals operate. Their biggest operation is in Malawi where they are reaching 30% of the country’s entire primary school population.
