How to donate to Marcus Rashford’s charity feeding Britain’s poorest children
Marcus Rashford has made fresh calls for people to donate to a food redistribution charity after MPs voted down his campaign to extend free school meals over the holidays.
The England football star said foodbanks are in ‘for a very tough winter’ as he shared details on how to support organisation FareShare.
The Manchester United striker partnered with the charity in March, when demand for food surged as coronavirus swept across the country, plunging thousands of families into financial hardship.
On Tuesday evening he tweeted: ‘I’ll be with @FareShareUK tomorrow to support the real superstars, our volunteers.
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‘The food banks are in for a very tough Winter. Most are currently distributing 6 food packages per min and we are only in Oct. To find out how you can help: https://fareshare.org.uk/donate/.’
How to donate to Marcus Rashford’s charity
FareShare says Rashford’s campaigning has helped raise enough money to provide over 4.2 million meals for children and families during the coronavirus crisis.
Donating just £1 can provide four meals for children in need. You can choose to give a one-off payment or a monthly sum here.
The money is used to deliver healthy food to food banks, community groups, activity schemes and schools.
You can also help out by volunteering, with a number of roles available including driving and fundraising.
After Rashford tweeted his support for FareShare, the charity responded to thank him for his campaign against food poverty.
They said: ‘Thank you @MarcusRashford for all the amazing work you are doing. Thousands of families will struggle to put food on the table this Christmas and we will continue doing all we can to help.’
Wednesday’s vote was triggered after a petition set up by the 22-year-old gained over 300,000 signatures in a matter of days, meaning Parliament would have to debate the issue.
It was brought forward after Labour threw its weight behind the footballer and tabled a motion calling for the free school meals scheme to be extended over the half-term and Christmas holidays until Easter 2021.
The opposition party said this would help feed 1.4 million disadvantaged children in England by providing families with £15-a-week food vouchers outside of term time.
But the motion was thrashed by 322 votes to 261 – a majority of 61.
Only five Tory MPs rebelled against the party, including Caroline Ansell who today resigned from her junior government role in protest.
Her resignation from the frontbench came amid backlash over a leaked memo, allegedly from government figures, asking Conservative MPs to make ‘suggested interventions’ in the Marcus Rashford school meals debate, including shifting the blame to Labour.
The statement said MPs should bring up the opposition party’s refusal to extend a similar scheme when it was in power over a decade ago.
The vote sparked outrage on social media, with many criticising comments made by minister Brendan Clarke-Smith who said he ‘did not believe in nationalising children’.
‘Where is the slick PR campaign encouraging absent parents to take some responsibility for their children?,’ he said, adding, ‘we need to get back to the idea of taking responsibility’.
Some are urging those angered by the vote to focus their energy on supporting foodbanks ahead of a winter of hardship under coronavirus restrictions.
Among them is Channel 4 news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who divided opinion after suggesting that everyone tweeting about child hunger make a donation instead.
‘I wonder how many children’s meals could be paid for if everyone tweeting about child hunger in Britain could afford to donate whatever they spent on their own food in a day to the charity Marcus Rashford supports: FareShareUK,’ he wrote.
Critics said the Government was failing disadvantaged children and the responsibility for feeding them shouldn’t be put onto tax payers.
But others were supportive and vowed to make regular donations.
One user shared the post writing: ‘I will. Can you get everyone at Channel 4 News to do the same? Let’s make this a thing.’
Another said: ‘Great idea. I make a monthly donation when I do my food shop to the Trussell Trust as Morrisons let you add it to your online basket. Super easy.’
Following the result, Rashford, who became an MBE this month after forcing the Government into a U-turn over summer, vowed not to give up fighting for hungry children.
He wrote in a statement on Twitter: ‘Put aside all the noise, the digs, the party politics and let’s focus on the reality.
‘A significant number of children are going to bed tonight not only hungry but feeling like they do not matter because of comments that have been made today.
‘We must stop stigmatising, judging and pointing fingers. Our views are being clouded by political affiliation. This is not politics, this is humanity.’
He urged politicians to ‘unite’ and said it is ‘time we worked together’ because child food poverty ‘has the potential to become the greatest pandemic the country has ever faced’.
The England forward, who has spoken of his own experiences growing up in poverty in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, added: ‘I don’t have the education of a politician.
‘Many on Twitter have made that clear today but I have a social education having lived through this and having spent time with the families and children most affected. These children matter.’
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