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Football

23rd Oct 2020

Businesses around the UK volunteer to help Marcus Rashford feed hungry kids

Wayne Farry

Tories voted against feeding hungry kids earlier this week

Businesses around the United Kingdom are volunteering to help Marcus Rashford in his cause to ensure that hungry children are fed through the half-term.

The surge in donations and businesses offering their services comes in response to the decision by Conservative MPs to vote against a Labour motion which would have put pressure on the government to feed the most vulnerable children in the UK during half-term.

322 Tory MPs – each of whom earns a basic annual salary of £81,932 – voted against the motion.

In the aftermath of that vote, Rashford – who for months has championed the extension of the free school meals scheme and even forced the government into a U-turn earlier this year – called on politicians to stop playing politics and deal with the plight of child hunger in the UK.

His pleas have led to dozens of businesses from around the country announcing that they will provide free meals for children, with Rashford sharing a large number of them on his Twitter account.

“Blown away by news of local businesses stepping up to fill the voucher scheme deficit during the October half term,” he said of the generosity. “Selflessness, togetherness, this is the England I know.”

Less than a month before the government decided against feeding the country’s hungry children, they awarded Rashford an MBE for his activism on child food poverty.