Rashford prepared to fight on to win more help for poorer families
ENGLAND FOOTBALLER Marcus Rashford has said he is planning his next move to help struggling families after his campaign to extend the children’s food voucher scheme into the summer holidays led to a Government Uturn.
The 22-year-old Manchester United striker was praised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his highly personal campaign, which forced the change in policy.
Downing Street on Tuesday announced a one-off £120m fund which will benefit some 1.3m children in England over the sixweek summer period.
Rashford said he was “shocked” by the decision, adding: “It’s a big decision for someone to make and I’m just grateful that the Prime Minister did change his decision and he understood. I spoke to him and thanked him for that. It’s a nice feeling but I’m just happy that people’s lives, and people’s summers especially, have been changed for the better.”
But the player said that people are “struggling all year round” and he now wants to learn “how we can help them best” in the future.
“I think this is only going to be successful throughout the summer period so we’ve bought ourselves six weeks of time now to plan and figure out what’s next and keep taking steps forward,” said Rashford.
“I don’t want this to be the end of it because there are definitely more steps that need to be taken.”
Rashford wrote an open letter on Monday asking the Government to reverse its decision not to award free school meals vouchers to vulnerable children outside term time.