Thanks to the footballer, thousands of children will continue to receive school meal vouchers over the summer. Initially, the campaign was due to stop at the end of term, causing many parents concern about how they would be able to afford to feed their children over the summer whilst the pandemic continues.
The school meal vouchers are issued to parents from low income families to help cover the costs of meals during term time. During the school closure, the vouchers have been accepted at supermarkets and continued through the half term and Easter holidays, however, government had said they would be ending the scheme at what would have been the end of term.
Marcus Rashford, who plays for Manchester United, raised concerns about ending the scheme and how this could impact families across the country and encouraged the government to rethink.
Following his campaign, the Government agreed to a u-turn and have announced that the scheme will continue through the summer, with a one off six week voucher being handed to eligible families to use in supermarkets.
Speaking about the campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said he had only heard of it that day but praised Marcus for raising awareness. He said: “It is right that we should be looking after the families of the most vulnerable and neediest right now, that is why we have the Covid summer food plan. I hope it will make a big difference to those kids and those families.”
