Marcus Rashford visits food charity with his mother as he keeps up free school meals campaign

Marcus Rashford paid tribute to “selfless” volunteers who support the most vulnerable as he visited a food charity with his mother amid an ongoing row over free school meals.

The pair visited FareShare Greater Manchester a day after a Labour motion for the scheme to be extended over school holidays until Easter 2021 was defeated in the House of Commons.

After the vote, the Manchester United and England footballer, who has led the campaign on free school meals, urged politicians to "unite" and protect the most vulnerable children and vowed to continue fighting on the issue , writing on Twitter: “For as long as they don’t have a voice, they will have mine.”

During the visit, the forward said: “When we stumble, there will always be a community to wrap their arms around us and pick us back up."

Rashford said that for many people help will come from food banks staffed by “selfless” volunteers who are dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable.

“Food banks who are staffed with selfless volunteers, dedicating their lives to protecting those most vulnerable, those who, in many cases, have fallen into unforeseen circumstances due to illness, personal loss and unemployment, " he said.

“It should be noted that a lot of these volunteers have themselves suffered unemployment as a result of the pandemic, yet they still strive to help others less fortunate.

“That to me is the greatest example of what we can do, and the difference we can make, when we just work together.”

The Manchester United footballer, has been at the forefront of campaigning to help vulnerable children. He forced a Government U-turn on free school meal vouchers for eligible pupils over the summer holidays. His petition urging the Government to go further in tackling child hunger hit 100,000 signatures just 10 hours after it was launched.

The footballer has spoken about his own experience of using a food voucher scheme as a child.

In a letter to MPs a few weeks ago, Rashford reflected on his own experience, writing: “I remember the sound of my mum crying herself to sleep to this day, having worked a 14-hour shift, unsure how she was going to make ends meet.”

He has been an ambassador for national food redistribution charity FareShare since March 2020.

The charity said it has seen demand for food soar since the outbreak of Covid-19 and is now distributing double the amount of food in comparison to before the lockdown in March, enough food for two million meals each week.

To respond to the crisis, FareShare Greater Manchester has taken on additional warehouse space which could treble the amount of food distributed in the region, naming the space Melanie Maynard House after Rashford’s mother.

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