Marcus Rashford has formed a new taskforce including some of the UK’s biggest supermarket brands to try and help tackle child food poverty in the UK.
Rashford, 22, has written to every MP in the country to urge them to back his campaign, with him telling the UK Government that ‘the time for action is now’.
Some of the big names that are part of the footballer’s new taskforce include Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Iceland, Lidl, Deliveroo and the Food Foundation. The taskforce is calling for three policy recommendations to be funded and implemented by the government as soon as possible;
- Expanding free school meals to every child from a household on Universal Credit or equivalent
- Expanding holiday food and activities to support all children on free school meals
- Increasing the value of the Healthy Start vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25 per week and expanding it to all those on Universal Credit or equivalent
According to the taskforce, implementing all three policy recommendations would mark a “unifying step to identifying a long-term solution to child poverty in the UK”.
The implementation of the recommendations from the National Food Strategy (commissioned by the government in 2019) would help to support over a million extra children and young people.
Over the coming days and weeks, it is expected that the Child Food Poverty Task Force will share stories on social media of children and their families going hungry. During the summer, Rashford successfully built a huge campaign on social media in a matter of days.
On Tuesday, members of the taskforce including Iceland and Tesco shared details about the campaign on their social media platforms with the hashtag #EndChildFoodPoverty.
This summer, the England and Manchester United footballer successfully campaigned to extend free school meals for eligible school pupils. In July, Rashford became the youngest ever recipient of an honorary degree from The University of Manchester, receiving a doctorate in recognition of his campaign against child poverty and sporting achievements.
Photo Credit: Oleg Bkhambri (Voltmetro) / CC BY-SA
