Mr Rashford has launched the #WriteNow campaign, which encourages the general public to contact their MP and encourage them to support three recommendations in the National Food Strategy to help alleviate food insecurity being experienced by families.
The three recommendations the England international footballer is supporting are:
- The expansion of free school meal eligibility to children aged seven-to- 18 in households earning £20,000 or less after benefits, and to children that are undocumented.
- Provision of long-term funding for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, increasing eligibility in line with free school meal expansion.
- The expansion of the Healthy Start scheme to all pregnant women and households with children under five earning £20,000 or less after benefits, along with investment in a communications campaign to increase awareness and uptake of the scheme.
Mr Rashford, a child food poverty campaigner, is calling on the Government to urgently support the recommendations and include the funds needed in the Spending Review, expected next month.
More families suffering from food insecurity
His campaign comes as new data from The Food Foundation shows that more households with children in the UK are experiencing food insecurity than in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
A survey by the charity of 1,723 adults with children, aged 17 and under, found that a quarter have experienced food insecurity in the past six months – an increase of 27 per cent on pre-Covid levels.
It is concerned that the £20 a week cut to universal credit payments at the end of this month will worsen the situation. On top of this, it says that food prices have been consistently higher in the first six months of this year than there were toward the end of 2020.
The Food Foundation says that Government schemes such as Free School Meals and Healthy Start can help to guarantee some ‘basic nutrition protection’ for children, however many children living in food insecure households are missing out on these.
In England, only children from households earning less than £7,400 (before benefits and after tax), qualify for Free School Meals (Year 3 and above). In Scotland all children in primary school will soon be getting FSM. In Wales, the threshold is the same as for England, but there are no Universal Free School Meals for those below Year 3. In Northern Ireland all children in households earning less than £14k (before benefits and after tax) get FSM.
Its new report, one of two published this week, argues that the current system for Free School Meals (FSM) is ‘unfair’ and ‘represents a postcode lottery’ as the income threshold for eligibility varies depending on where abouts in the UK families live.
It finds that the ‘very low’ threshold in England means half of children who are from food insecure households are excluded from free school meals because their families earn just above £7,400 (before tax and benefits). This equates to approximately 350,000 children.
‘Feeding our Future’ looks at the provision of school food across the four devolved nations and makes recommendations for policymakers, caterers and schools. The charity’s other report, ‘A Year of Children’s Food’, provides a progress update on policy to address children’s food poverty over the past year and allocates a traffic light rating to each of the four nations.
Marcus Rashford said, ‘Whilst we’ve come a long way in the last 20 months, placing the issue of child food poverty at the forefront, devastatingly, the issue is getting worse not better.
‘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 roadmap 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. I will be writing to my MP about it, and I would encourage you all to do the same.’
- To support the #WriteNowcampaign click here