Covid-19: Rashford steps up campaign over free meals for children

London, June 15 (IANS): Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford has stepped up his campaign for the government to fund free meals for needy children through the summer school lockdown.

Rashford, 22, has already raised awareness and funds for those families who are “existing on a knife’s edge” and struggling to feed their children.

He has raised about £20m to supply three million meals to vulnerable people while working with charity FareShare UK during the coronavirus lockdown, as per a BBC Sport report.

“As a family, we relied on breakfast clubs, free school meals and the kind actions of neighbours and coaches,” he wrote in a letter to the government posted on Twitter.

“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.”

Speaking to BBC Breakfast about the letter, Rashford said: “It’s written from the heart and it’s about how my life was at the moment – the letter is to open up and let people understand the impact on families and to know I’ve done the right thing.

“What families are going through now, I’ve once had to go through that – and it’s very difficult to find a way out. It’s very important for me to help people who are struggling. Whether the outcome changes or doesn’t change – that’s why I wrote it.”

“My mum worked full-time, earning the minimum wage, to make sure we always had a good evening meal on the table, but it was not enough,” Rashford wrote in the letter.

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

Rashford added his plea for the government to “make the U-turn and make protecting the lives of some of our most vulnerable a top priority” was “not about politics” but about “humanity”.