Millions of needy kids helped, reveals Reds star
MARCUS Rashford has said more than 3.7 million meals are now being supplied to vulnerable children during the pandemic – following on from his successful campaign to extend the government’s free school meals scheme over summer.
The 22-year-old United star is working with national food charity Fareshare to feed needy families during the coronavirus lockdown.
He took to Twitter to announce that the charity is now supplying 3.7m meals a week.
“Thank you all for your support! Have a great Sunday,” he posted to his 2.9 million followers.
Wythenshawe-born Rashford wrote an open letter to MPs last week urging the government to reverse its decision not to award free school meals vouchers in England – for which nearly 1.3 million children are eligible.
Following his campaign, the government announced a U-turn on its decision.
Rashford later insisted that his campaign was not over and that he would continue taking steps to ensure children were not going hungry in the UK. He said: “I don’t want this to be the end of it because there are definitely more steps that need to be taken.
“So we just need to analyse the response.”
Rashford has raised more than £20m to boost food distribution since pairing up with FareShare.
FareShare CEO, Lindsay Boswell, praised the footballer for his campaign.
She said: “We’re enormously grateful to Marcus Rashford for his unstinting support of FareShare – helping us get food onto the plates of over three million vulnerable children. His tireless campaigning work to ensure that no child in this country should go hungry over the school summer holidays has delivered fantastic results.
“A move to continue funding free school meals over the summer months will be a huge relief to struggling families across the UK, many of whom have faced unimaginable strain during this crisis.
“Our network of charities is already seeing a huge increase in demand for food, and we are supplying more charities supporting children and families than ever before – so this is very welcome news.
“However, we know that even with the voucher scheme in place, the need for food will still be there, particularly as, in the event of a recession, charities and community groups providing food will need to support many more people facing financial hardship and food insecurity. That’s why we are calling on the public and the food industry to get behind our appeal to help to deliver more healthy, nutritious food to the food banks, community groups, activity schemes and schools supporting the UK’s most vulnerable children – not just over the summer holidays but in the months and years to come.”