June 17 – Already facing widespread condemnation over playing catch-up with regard to Covid-19, the British government has now been forced to bow to pressure from a 22-year-old footballer and scrap its controversial policy of stopping free meals for needy school children.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an abrupt u-turn on Tuesday and agreed to keep funding meals for schoolkids after Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford urged that they did not go hungry during the pandemic.
British ministers originally said school food vouchers would not be available over the long summer holiday period, prompting Rashford to take up the cause and cite his own childhood experience of relying on free school lunches and food banks.
Rashford’s campaign took him beyond football and into the realm of politics as he gained support from across the political spectrum after pressing the government not to abandon the meal voucher programme at the end of the school term in July.
Until Tuesday, the government had refused to budge but caved in and said it would continue the programme for 1.3 million children in England from lower-income families who are eligible.
“We have to understand the pressures families are under right now and that’s why we’ve responded as we have,” said Johnson whose government has been condemned for putting the country into lockdown far too late, costing thousands of lives.
Rashford had written to Johnson and lawmakers saying how much free school meals mattered. “Ten years ago, I was one of them. I know what it feels like to be hungry,” he wrote.
“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.”
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