Marcus Rashford has said child food poverty is getting ‘devastatingly’ worse in the UK as he launched a new fight to stop kids going hungry.
The England and Manchester United player is calling on the Government to act after new data revealed more households are suffering from food insecurity now than in the first wave of the pandemic last year.
Relaunching his high-profile campaign to support vulnerable youngsters, the 23-year-old is urging the Government to include much-needed funds to help the ‘child hunger pandemic’ in the autumn Spending Review.
Rashford said he is supporting three recommendations which aim to guarantee that every child at risk of going hungry manages to get food every day.
The first recommendation is to expand free school meal eligibility to all children aged seven to 18 in all households earning £20,000 or less after benefits, and to children that are undocumented or living in immigrant households with ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF).
The second is to provide long-term funding for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, increasing eligibility in line with free school meal expansion.
And the third is to expand Healthy Start eligibility to all households with pregnant women or children under five earning £20,000 or less after benefits, and invest in a communications campaign to increase uptake of the scheme which provides free vouchers to buy milk, fruit and vegetables.
The recommendations supported by Rashford are part of Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy.
Rashford said: ‘Whilst we have come a long way in the last 20 months, placing the issue of child food poverty at the forefront, devastatingly, it is getting worse not better.
‘The entire nation got behind the national team this summer so let us put these figures in football terms – you can fill 27 Wembley stadiums with the 2.5 million children that are struggling to know where their next meal might be coming from today.
‘What is it going to take for these children to be prioritised? Instead of removing support through social security, we should be focusing efforts on developing a sustainable long-term road map out of this child hunger pandemic.
‘I am, today, pledging my support for three recommendations from Part 2 of the National Food Strategy. I hope that we see the required investment pledged during the Autumn Spending Review.’
A new survey from The Food Foundation found that 15% of households in the UK have experienced food insecurity in the past six months – levels that are approximately 27% higher than before the pandemic.
Last year, Rashford waged a popular campaign to persuade the Government to provide free meals to vulnerable youngsters in England throughout the school holidays during the pandemic, forcing the Prime Minister into a U-turn.
He also became the youngest person to top the Sunday Times Giving List by raising £20 million in donations from supermarkets for groups tackling child poverty.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain today, Mr Dimbleby hailed his supporter as an ‘amazing’ voice for the cause, adding: ‘He has lived it.
‘He can really talk to the experience and he gets rid of this idea that somehow this nanny state-ism or this is things that families should be able to do for themselves by painting a picture of what it’s like to be in that situation.’
The revival of Rashford’s campaign comes as the £20 uplift to Universal Credit draws to a close, with the benefit set to be removed from the the beginning of October.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: ‘It is extremely distressing that now even more children lack a secure, nutritious diet compared with last year.
‘Despite a sense of ‘normality’ returning, this is no time for complacency – we cannot sit back and allow this damage to our children’s health, learning and life chances, not to mention the heavy burden it bears on our NHS.
‘We know children from deprived backgrounds have higher obesity rates, worse levels of diabetes, more tooth decay and even impaired height development, compared with their wealthier peers.
‘This will only get worse if left unaddressed and entrench inequalities deeper.’
The #WriteNow campaign encourages the public to visit Rashford’s campaign website and follow the steps to write to their local MP.
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