Marcus Rashford puts pressure on government to reverse the end of free school meal vouchers

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has exerted pressure on the government to reverse their decision not to extend the free school meals voucher system, urging MPs to “make protecting the lives of some of our most vulnerable a top priority” in a two-page open letter.

The 22-year-old, whose collaboration with charity FareShare during the coronavirus lockdown has supplied three million food packages to those most in need, has been a powerful advocate in combating child poverty.

Rashford has vowed to “keep fighting” so that no kid in the United Kingdom “has to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”

Central to that is holding the government to account and forcing them to u-turn on the call to stop free school meal vouchers when the summer holidays begin.

The England international warned “food poverty in England is a pandemic that could span generations if we don’t course correct now.”

Rashford shared his personal experience of relying on free meals and underlined how much more desperate the situation is during the pandemic with jobs and income being lost.

“The system was not built for families like mine to succeed, regardless of how hard my mum worked,” he writes.

“As a family, we relied on breakfast clubs, free school meals, and the kind actions of neighbours and coaches.

“Food banks and soup kitchens were not alien to us; I recall very clearly our visits to Northern Moor to collect our Christmas dinners every year.

“Whilst 1.3 million children in England are registered for free school meals, one quarter of these children have not been given any support since the school closures were ordered.

“We rely on parents, many of whom have seen their jobs evaporate due to Covid-19, to play substitute teacher during lockdown, hoping that their children are going to be focused enough to learn, with only a small percentage of their nutritional needs met during this period.

“This is a system failure and without education, we’re encouraging this cycle of hardship to continue. To put this pandemic in to perspective, from 2018-2019, nine out of 30 children in any given classroom were living in poverty in the UK.

“This figure is expected to rise by an additional one million by 2022. In England today, 45% of children in black and minority ethnic groups are now in poverty.”

Rashford points out that he could have been included in those type of figures while growing up but “due to the selfless actions of my mum, my family, my neighbours, and my coaches, the only stats I’m associated with are goals, appearances and caps. I would be doing myself, my family and my community an injustice if I didn’t stand here today with my voice and my platform and ask you for help.”

open image in gallery

The forward has encouraged the public to get in touch with their local MPs by tagging them on Twitter and using #maketheUturn to force the government into a reversal.