Lisa Kavaney
Marcus Rashford, 24, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to vulnerable children in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prince William presented the Manchester United football star’s award, during an Investiture at Windsor Castle on 9 November 2021.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took to Twitter to congratulate Marcus Rashford. They said: “Keep continuing the vital work you are doing for vulnerable children across the UK.”
Rashford was nominated to become an MBE by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his high profile campaign to end child food poverty.
Boris Johnson said he “congratulated” Rashford on his campaign.
“I’m incredibly honoured and humbled. As a young black man from Wythenshawe, never did I think I would be accepting an MBE, never mind an MBE at the age of 22. This is a very special moment for myself and my family, but particularly my mum who is the real deserving recipient of the honour.
Marcus Rashford
The fight to protect our most vulnerable children is far from over. I would be doing my community, and the families I have met and spoken with, an injustice if I didn’t use this opportunity to respectfully urge the Prime Minister, who recommended me for this honour, to support our children during the October half term with an extension of the voucher scheme.”
Free School Meals
Marcus Rashford wrote an open letter to MPs which convinced the government to provide free school meals to vulnerable children during lockdown.
Rashford forced the government into two significant U-turns over its free school meal policy. He states: “political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry?”
Having experienced food poverty growing up, it is clear to Rashford that “protecting the lives of some of our most vulnerable” in society is incredibly important for their welfare- knowing too well that children cannot focus enough to learn “with only a small percentage of their nutritional needs met.”
In March 2020, the government introduced a voucher scheme to help vulnerable families buy food for their children while not attending school due to the pandemic.
1.4 million children became eligible to receive a weekly food voucher worth £15. This voucher replaced the meagre food parcels being handed out by schools.
In April 2020, the government announced it would continue the free school meal scheme through the school holidays.
Featured image courtesy of Katerina Holmes via Pexels. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
Lisa Kavaney
Lisa is an NCTJ level 5 Diploma student, studying with the Academy of Disabled Journalists. She can be found on Twitter @lisakavaney