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SCHOOL meals blogger Martha Payne has received 2000 thank-yous from the school in Malawi where a new kitchen will be named after her.

Donations to Scots charity Mary’s Meals prompted by the nine-year-old’s website – featuring pictures and ratings of her school dinners – were last night edging towards £85,000.

After the Record revealed that a kitchen to be built by the charity at Lirangwe Primary School in Blantyre, Malawi, is to be named Friends of NeverSeconds, the school’s pupils paid tribute to their new pal in Scotland.

Children wrote, “Thank you Martha and your friends” on a classroom blackboard and sang songs in honour of the Lochgilphead Primary pupil whose blog inspired readers from around the world to donate funds.

Mary’s Meals founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow said Martha had raised enough not only to build a kitchen at the school and feed all of its 2000 pupils for a year, but also to feed an additional 5800 kids one meal a day for 12 months.

Martha said: “It’s really good because it can feed lots of children for a long time.

“Calling the kitchen Friends of NeverSeconds is important as it’s a thank-you to everyone who has supported me and Mary’s Meals.

“Mary’s Meals is a very simple charity and can achieve so much with so very little.”

In Malawi, Mary’s Meals provides children with a daily mug of likuni phala, a nutritious porridge with vitamins and minerals.

The charity’s programmes not only help feed children in poverty, but also help attract them to school so they can improve their education.

Yesterday at Lirangwe Primary, individual pupils also sent Martha personal messages to thank her for efforts.

They included nine-year-old orphan Gilbert Chigomere who lives on the streets of Blantyre.

He first began attending school when Mary’s Meals launched their project there.

He said: “Please say hello to Martha for me. I want to thank her for all of her hard work.

“I like the porridge because, after I eat it, I am active and can concentrate in class. It really helps me because it takes me a while to get hungry again.”

Gilbert was joined in thanking Martha by 13-year-old Lirangwe pupil Modesta Vincent.

She said: “I hope that Martha continues having such a kind heart, so that she – and others like her – can help us to continue having the porridge at school.”

Martha’s blog began getting thousands of hits from around the world just days after she started posting pictures of her school dinners last month.

She soon passed her target of raising £7000 for Argyll-based Mary’s Meals as she won support from celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Nick Nairn.

She got a further funding boost after receiving a lesson from Nairn at his Lake of Menteith Cook School.

Humourless council chiefs reacted angrily to a light-hearted headline in the Daily Record accompanying the story of her visit and banned her from taking any more photos, only to quickly reverse the decision amid a furious backlash.

The global publicity the story received resulted in nearly 6000 people donating money, while hits on her blog are nearly six million.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow added: “I am humbled by Martha and her friends. We feel extremely proud of them. Because of what they are doing, and all those generous people who are donating, the lives of thousands of the world’s poorest children will be transformed.

“For every £10.70 donated, we are able to ensure another child will get a good daily meal for a whole school year.

“Many schools on waiting lists for Mary’s Meals will soon get very good news.

“We refuse to accept that any child in this world of plenty must endure a day without a meal and it is so heartening to realise that so many people around the world share that vision.”