Marcus Rashford's help towards food poverty

Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United and England footballer, has set up a group called the ‘Child Food Poverty Task Force’ that are looking towards reducing food poverty in the UK.

What is Food poverty?

Food poverty is when someone, or a household, do not have enough money to buy a reasonable amount of healthy food. In England around 2.5 million children live in a household without enough food, and around 1.3 million children receive free school meals because the household they live in cannot afford them.

What is it that Rashford has done and is continuing to do?

In June, Rashford wrote to members of parliament stating how important free school meals are to families in England, and so far has managed to make the government take a U-turn with food vouchers, after they said that they would not be available outside of term time. After a debate from Rashford, the government changed their decision and the school meal vouchers were extended for the 6 weeks outside school term.

Marcus Rashford is still on twitter actively trying to fight for more actions to be taken and for an extra 1.5 million children aged up to 16 that need support, to be able to receive free meals. Rashford also believes that, following on from the debate to have free school meal vouchers extended over the school holiday, that they should be given during the holidays anyway and that this needs changing. Marcus Rashford has also said that he would like to see the amount value from healthy start vouchers go up from £3.10 to £4.25 per week to help out families in need.

In one of his recent tweets, Rashford stated that “Following the extension of the voucher scheme in the Summer, I was encouraged to see the government take active steps in understanding the true scale of the child food poverty in the UK” but shortly after says “However, I am disappointed by the lack of empathy shown towards protecting our most vulnerable, the future of this country,” showing that while he is happy that things are being done, he still feels that there is still a lot of work do to tackle food poverty.

So, why has Marcus Rashford done all this?

Marcus Rashford started tackling food poverty because as a child, he himself had to rely on free school meals, and despite his mum working full-time, his family still could not afford meals, so Rashford wanted to use his platform to try tackle the issue of food poverty in England, having experienced it first hand as a child. Rashford has also urged anyone that needs help to reach out for it and not be afraid to ask for help, saying “I feel like at times people think they are being looked down on if they ask for help… Hold your head up high and if you need help, go and get help.”

What response has the campaign had?

Members of parliament have tweeted out to Marcus Rashford supporting his plan, and the prime minister Boris Johnson called Rashford and thanked him for doing what he has done, before announcing the U-turn on free meal vouchers. What Rashford has done has already helped over a million families and with the group he has set up will help many more in the future.