Mary's Meals runs 20 worldwide school feeding programs with Atlassian's system of work

Challenge: Mary’s Meals needed robust collaboration software to connect more than 20 teams supporting feeding programs in 16 countries and a global movement of supporters.

Solution: To accommodate growth, Mary’s Meals migrated their Jira, Jira Service Management, and Confluence instances from Data Center to Cloud.

Impact: With a System of Work powered by Atlassian cloud, the team improved system scalability, performance, security, and efficiency – helping them feed 2x more children daily.

Utilizing collaboration to feed bodies and minds

Mary’s Meals began by feeding 200 children in Malawi more than 20 years ago. Today, it’s an international organization that provides daily school meals for more than 2.6 million children in 16 countries. “We’re dealing with the type of hunger that disrupts daily life and stands in the way of education, but there’s a sense we can do something about it. That’s why I love working here,” says Head of Infrastructure and Operations Stephen Neil.

Mary’s Meals compromises a global network of school feeding programs across 16 countries and more than 20 fundraising entities. Mary’s Meals International is the central organization that coordinates and supports the many teams — of both staff and volunteers — leading school feeding and fundraising activities globally.

That’s a big mission, requiring robust IT infrastructure. In 2019, Mary’s Meals created a System of Work using Jira, Jira Service Management, and Confluence. This system helps connect technical and programmatic teams across Mary’s Meals so they can resolve issues faster for teams across the world.

Mary’s Meals had (and continues to have) big dreams of expanding into even more countries — which meant their infrastructure needed to scale, too. With support from the Atlassian Foundation and their solution partner, New Verve (now part of Knowmad mood Ltd), Mary’s Meals migrated from Atlassian Data Center to Cloud in November 2024, equipping the organization to keep adding programs and feeding more children for decades to come.

The next step for scalability: Atlassian cloud

Before the transition to Atlassian cloud, Mary’s Meals ran all Atlassian tools on a single Data Center node. This system was meeting the teams’ needs, but was complex and time-consuming to manage. Stephen knew it wouldn’t be sustainable as Mary’s Meals grew.

Stephen suspected the many customizations were leading to speed and performance issues, and the single node meant any service interruption could cause system-wide outages. His team also found they were spending more and more time on security maintenance work. 

“Soon, we would have had to change our instance size on Data Center anyway. I wanted to introduce a more redundant infrastructure that could scale – and I wanted access to new Atlassian features like Rovo.”

Unleashing the potential of all teams with discounted licenses

Mary’s Meals knew the right tools, like Atlassian apps, could actually boost efficiency, helping them deliver more impact. But originally, enterprise-grade tools seemed out of reach on a nonprofit budget. That’s why Stephen was excited to learn of the discounted licenses for nonprofits provided by the Atlassian Foundation.

With a 75% discount, Mary’s Meals could invest in the enterprise-grade technology that would serve its teams best. Mary’s Meals also accessed the Atlassian Foundation’s support for nonprofits, receiving an Atlassian Solution Grant to fund a partnership with Solution Partner New Verve. New Verve supported Mary’s Meals in migrating from Atlassian Data Center to Cloud.

Cloud infrastructure fit to feed 1 million more children — and counting

With Atlassian cloud powering their team’s work, Mary’s Meals has more than doubled the number of children they’re feeding, from 1.3M to more than 2.6M every day. While scalability was the catalyst that pushed Mary’s Meals to migrate, moving to the cloud has also improved performance, efficiency, and security.

Efficiency pays dividends in saved time and heightened security

“Since the migration, we haven’t seen any of those former performance issues pop up, and our insurers haven’t reached out asking us to patch vulnerabilities,” says Stephen.

His team was able to replace most of the elements they’d custom coded in Jira with Atlassian Automation. Between nine Marketplace Apps and native cloud functionality, they’ve built a solution tailored precisely to their needs. Particularly valuable Marketplace apps include Microsoft 365 for Jira and Statuspage for Jira Service Management. So far, they’re saving at least eight hours a month on security testing and fixes, which they’re reallocating to designated “Innovation Days” every month for strategic work.

Faster responses in multiple languages with AI and Rovo

Unlocking access to Rovo and AI-powered features is proving to be another valuable addition for Mary’s Meals. “We’re just beginning to find uses for AI, but our teams are already relying on capabilities that aren’t available in Data Center,” Stephen says.

For example:

• In Jira, Rovo lightens the load of work planning by suggesting content for projects, tasks and subtasks, so teams can get to execution faster.

• In Jira Service Management, teams spend less time handling repetitive queries with Rovo’s AI-suggested responses.

• In Jira Service Management, AI translations make it easier for IT teams and service agents to communicate with affiliates in other countries.

In the future, Stephen hopes Rovo can help affiliates self-serve by sharing knowledge from Confluence without the user needing to open a ticket. Mary’s Meals is also considering Atlassian Goals as a potential means to collaborate with affiliates on strategic initiatives and track progress toward objectives and key results.

Atlassian cloud has made teams’ jobs easier – and better teamwork means making life better for the children Mary’s Meals serves. “My greatest accomplishment in this role is helping build the infrastructure we’ve used to double how many children we feed,” Stephen says. “I’m confident now that we’re on Atlassian cloud, we can do that again and again.”

Streamlining in-house development and infrastructure work with Jira and Rovo

Mary’s Meals uses Jira to track and manage all in-house development projects and infrastructure upgrades. The organization runs multiple custom applications, including fundraising payments portals and a program management app for recording school attendance and food stock levels.

Stephen’s Infrastructure and Operations Team uses Jira to maintain and expand these applications so they can keep meeting the needs of more programs and children as Mary’s Meals' reach grows. Rovo comes in handy here too — for example, suggesting content for projects, tasks, and subtasks so steams can get to execution faster.

The team also used Jira to plan and roll out their digital transformation project. This initiative brought all affiliates onto a shared toolstack, which includes Salesforce for donor management, a content management system, and Jira Service Management. All national affiliates use Jira to onboard these tools and learn how to use them, leading to higher adoption and usage.

Fueling collaboration for 1,000+ workers providing meals for 1M+ more children a day

When Mary’s Meals' teams work better, they can deliver better, scaled outcomes for children all over the world. Since 2019, Mary’s Meals has gone from feeding 1.3M to more than 2.6M children every school day. “My greatest accomplishment in this role is helping build the infrastructure we’ve used to double how many children we feed,” Stephen says. “With Atlassian cloud and our System of Work, I’m confident we can do that again and again.”

The organization is making a huge impact — and they’re doing so with the Atlassian system of work at their fingertips.

“Over the years, our use of Atlassian tooling has grown. It’s now quite central to how teams across the organization operate, including how we plan our projects and provide key support services,” Stephen says. “As we’ve grown our Atlassian system of work, there’s now a stronger appreciation for the need for cloud for scaling, business continuity, and innovation. We’re really looking forward to continuing our journey on the Atlassian cloud platform!”