Yahoo Sport 
Marcus Rashford to lead taskforce to tackle child food poverty
Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has stepped up his fight against child food poverty by spearheading a task force to tackle the issue.
The England international, who forced the government into a U-turn over free school meal vouchers over the summer, has assembled major industries to increase pressure on chancellor Rishi Sunak to make funds available to families in need.
Rashford personally wrote to MPs on Monday in a bid to force them to act.
And now he has the backing of supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda to strengthen his campaign.
The Child Food Poverty Task Force is endorsing National Food Strategy policy recommendations to:
Expand free school meals to every child from a household on Universal Credit.
Expand food and activities holiday provision to all children on free school meals.
Increase the value of the Healthy Start vouchers from £3.10 a week to £4.25 and expanding it to those on Universal Credit or equivalent.
In his letter to MPs Rashford said: “The topic of child food poverty will always be greeted with judgement, excuse and assumption but, at the end of the day, the only valid response we should be giving is, whatever the situation, it is NEVER the child’s fault.
“Those most at risk aren’t in a position and don’t have the platform to scream help from the top of the rooftops but, for those ready to speak, my intention is to offer them the platform to do so, and for those who aren’t, I will continue to be their voice and act on their behalf.
“Mothers, and fathers, are raising respectful, eloquent young men and women, who, in reality, are part of a system that will not allow them the opportunity to win and succeed.
Add school closures, redundancies and furloughs into the equation and we have an issue that could negatively impact generations to come. It all starts with stability around access to food.”
Also on the task force are Aldi, Co-op, Deliveroo, FareShare, Food Foundation, Iceland, Kellogg’s, Lidl.
Rashford has campaigned fiercely to feed children in need, helping to raise over £20million with charity FareShare during the coronavirus lockdown.
In June he forced the Government to perform a U-turn over their decision not to provide meal vouchers to vulnerable children over the summer.
His latest efforts make it clear he will continue his fight.
“I have been lucky enough to spend time with families who have benefitted significantly from the extended food voucher scheme,” he wrote. “The actions the Government took have positively impacted millions of children’s lives in the UK.
“However, as Summer and the voucher scheme comes to an end and we face increased unemployment, we have to work towards implementing a sustainable long-term framework to protect children most at risk from food poverty.
“It was clear to me that the voucher scheme extension was only ever going to support this issue in the short-term and speaking to families directly has just reinforced that thinking.”
Read more
Rashford and Aboah cover stars of Vogue’s activist-themed issue