LOCKDOWN LEADER: Marcus Rashford
“Just look at what we can do when we come together,” tweeted 22 year old Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford on hearing that his campaign for free school meals for children over the summer holidays, had worked.
Today the government announced that a “Covid summer school fund” is being set up, to help feed children during the six week summer holiday. Children eligible for free school meals in term time in England will get a six-week voucher.
The move, described by Labour as a "welcome U-turn” came after Rashford wrote an emotional open letter to MPs and was subsequently watched by millions on the news channels yesterday as he talked about his own experience of food poverty as he was growing up.
The Manchester United forward drew on his own experience of relying on free school meals and food banks and asked others to think about struggling parents who have had their "water turned off" during the lockdown, and whose children have gone hungry.
The 1.3 million school children eligible for free school meals have received food parcels or vouchers during lockdown however this scheme was going to end in England at the end of the summer term (the provision was continuing in Scotland and Wales).
The extended scheme was "a specific measure to reflect the unique circumstances of the pandemic, ” said an official Downing Street spokesperson and, on the Marcus Rashford’s intervention, commented ”The PM welcomes his contribution to the debate around poverty and respects the fact that he has been using his profile as a leading sportsman to highlight important issues.”
On hearing the news, Rashford’s tweeted “I don’t even know what to say. Just look at what we can do when we come together. THIS is England in 2020.”