Rashford thanks PM for meal deal
FOOTBALL star Marcus Rashford personally thanked Boris Johnson for agreeing to a £120million scheme to feed children over the summer.
The England and Manchester United striker, 22, led a campaign to extend the free school meal scheme into the holidays.
It saw a U-turn from Downing Street which announced a one-off fund which will benefit some 1.3 million youngsters over the six-week break. Rashford said: “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 lives have been changed for the better.”
But he warned that he will continue to hold the Government to account over the issue because people are “struggling all year round”. He added: “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.
“There are 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. The Department for Education said later that day that the national voucher scheme was not being extended – before the Prime Minister decided to intervene on Tuesday.
Mr Johnson said: “We have to understand the pressures families are under now and that’s why we’ve responded as we have.”
Vouchers are worth £15 per week per child and it is understood payment will be in the form of a one-off sixweek voucher for eligible families at the end of term to use in supermarkets.