Offaly Mary's Meals are looking for your spare coppers

MOST of us have that tin, bottle, jar or drawer somewhere at home or even at work, which is full of Coins that have been lying around for a while, maybe even for years.

The charity Mary's Meals would love if you'd donate them to help feed the 2,058,099 hungry children they are currently feeding each day at school in 19 of the poorest countries in the world. Amazingly it costs only nine cent to provide a nutritious meal for each child. This means every €1 donated to Mary's Meals will provide 11 meals to feed 11 children.

A sum of €18.30 feeds a child at school for a whole school year. This is only possible because the majority of the work carried out by the charity is done by an army of volunteers (80,000 in Malawi alone). Mary's Meals also guarantee that at least 93 per cent of all donations go directly to feeding the children.

Any Irish or English Coins would be greatly appreciated including the old Irish Punt coins that were in use before the Euro.

Eight local Stores have very kindly agreed to be drop off points for the coin collecton. They are;

1) Tyrells Home Bakery, O'Moore Street,

2) Hanlon's Butcher's, Patrick Street,

3) O'Sullivan's Centra, Kilcormac,

4) Centra Fingerboard,

5) Leavy's Centra, Henry Street,

6) Doyle's Gala, William Street,

7) Galvin's William Street &

8) The Bridge Centre

You can also contact Paul Galvin of Mary's Meals Offaly on 087 8375 407 who'll gladly arrange the collection of any    coins  you would like to donate.

So  if you'd like to find a good home for all those spare coins that may be lying around your house or work place, (or down the back of the sofa!!) now could be the time to put them to good use, knowing that your nine cent will provide another meal for a hungry child at school.