The England and Manchester United star, 22, said a long-term solution was needed to stop more than a million children going to bed hungry. Three months ago the striker was instrumental in forcing a government U-turn to provide food vouchers for summer holidays in England, with more than 1.3 million children benefiting.
And this month he set up the Child Food Poverty Taskforce with some of the biggest food brands to provide more free school meals, extend voucher schemes to cover all holidays and to reach more families.
Child food poverty remains a cause close to Rashford’s heart because he received free school meals growing up in south Manchester. However, he was left frustrated by a letter from Education Secretary Gavin Williamson which stopped short of backing his demands.
Speaking about his summer campaign, Rashford told BBC Breakfast yesterday: “We knew we had found a short-term solution that was not going to work in the long run.”
The taskforce is now calling on the Government to fund several key policy recommendations from the National Food Strategy.
These include expanding free school meals to every child from a household on Universal Credit, reaching an extra 1.5 million children aged seven to 16.
On Friday in a series of tweets Rashford told his 3.3 million followers: “Imagine going to bed with a full stomach, knowing there are 1.1M helpless children wide awake listening to their stomachs grumbling or parents sobbing, whose life could be improved by one decision.
“If a child needs access to food at school of course they need access to it at home!
“Why can’t we provide assurance our children will be protected during school holidays?” And yesterday he added: “This hunger pandemic is bigger than football and politics – the time to take action is now.”
