Marcus Rashford’s desire to use his global platform to help the vulnerable and disadvantaged in society is inspirational as well as admirable.
The Manchester United forward successfully campaigned for the government to extend their free school meal voucher policy into the summer holidays, allowing around 1.3m school children to have access to free meals.
Rashford has spoken openly about his own struggles in childhood, and has now formed a task force with some of the biggest food brands in the UK to help reduce child poverty.
He has teamed up companies and charities including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Deliveroo, FareShare, Food Foundation, Iceland, Kellogg’s, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose and has sent an open letter to all UK MP’s.
The task force have made three requests for changes to national food strategy policy, including:
Expansion of free school meals to every child from a household on universal credit or equivalent, reaching an additional 1.5 million children aged between seven and 16.
Expansion of holiday provision (food and activities) to support all children on free school meals, reaching an additional 1.1 million children.
Increasing the value of the Healthy Start vouchers to £4.25 per week (from £3.10) and expanding into all those on universal credit or equivalent, reaching an additional 290,000 pregnant women and children under the age of four.
In the statement made by Rashford and his task force, they state their intentions to see ‘sufficient funds’ from the Chancellor’s Budget and Spending Review used for their three recommendations.
Rashford has posted a video on social media outlining his plan to help end child poverty:
For the millions who don’t have the platform to be heard…
🗣 #ENDCHILDFOODPOVERTY pic.twitter.com/OuJrZNuWa7
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) September 1, 2020
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