Search icon

Football

01st Sep 2020

Marcus Rashford puts government to shame with creation of poverty task force

Wayne Farry

The footballer has partnered with a number of supermarkets

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has announced the formation of a Child Food Poverty Task Force, which aims to end food poverty for children across Britain.

While Boris Johnson is busy giving his thoughts on whether BBC Proms should play certain songs or not, Rashford has partnered with a number of supermarkets, as well as brands like Kellogg’s and Deliveroo in a bid to raise awareness and put pressure on the government to implement policies that bring an end to child hunger.

“We had to think about the best way to do it, to think about how these families can eat long term and not have any issues,” he told the BBC.

“We wanted to do it the best way we could, introduce the best people into our group, and see if using them [we] can push it even more.”

Earlier this year, Rashford used his platform to raise millions of pounds for children who were unable to avail of the government’s free school meal vouchers while schools were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As someone who used free school meal vouchers himself as a child, and as someone who has spoken of the memory of being hungry as a child, the cause of ending child hunger in the sixth wealthiest country on earth is one close to his heart.

Rashford’s campaign during the summer resulted in a government U-turn on free school meals, and ahead of his new campaign he has written to MPs outlining what needs to be done.