November 9 – Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has forced the UK government into a second u-turn with his calls to extend free school meals to children from low-income families during school holidays in England.
Rashford led a campaign to keep the government paying for £15-a-week food vouchers for some of England’s poorest families over the summer.
The scheme wasn’t being extended to cover winter and the 23-year-old Rashford again went into lobbying action for a cause that is close to his own experience.
The new package approved by government includes a £170 million Covid winter grant scheme to support vulnerable families in England and an extension of the holiday activities and food programme to the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks next year.
Such is the credibility that Rashford has generated around his campaign and the seriousness with which he has immersed himself in battling child poverty and hunger issues, that UK prime minister Boris Johnson made the call to Rashford personally to deliver the news on the funding.
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