England and Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has become an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

The footballer, 22, campaigned for the government to allow about 1.3 million children to claim free school meal vouchers in England's summer holidays during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rashford, who has asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to extend that scheme, said the MBE was a "nice moment".

The Queen's Birthday Honours list was originally scheduled to be published in June, but it was postponed by the prime minister to allow nominations of people who played crucial roles during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rashford request to prime minister
After a coronavirus lockdown was imposed in the UK in March, the government provided vouchers to families whose children qualify for free meals, but it had insisted this would not continue into the summer holidays.

This prompted Rashford to write an open letter to MPs, drawing on his own experiences of relying on free school meals and food banks while growing up in Wythenshawe, Manchester. He called on the government to reverse its decision - which it did shortly after he spoke out.

That enabled about 1.3m children in England to claim vouchers over the holidays, with the support working out at about £15 a week for each child.

Rashford continued his campaign by establishing a taskforce with some of the UK's biggest food brands to try to help reduce child food poverty.

He wants politicians to go further to tackle hunger in families.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast about being made an MBE, Rashford said: "It's a nice moment for me personally but I feel like I'm still at the beginning of the journey that I set out to try to achieve.

"I think what I would like to do now that I'm in this position is just speak directly to the prime minister and really ask for the vouchers to be extended until at least October half-term because I think that's what the families need.

"Speaking to them and knowing how much they've been helped, and how much it's going to affect them if they don't have it, that's got to be my main focus now - to get that message across."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/54476721

Lalasticlala Mynd44

He understood the importance of platforms and he used his to speak out at a time no one else would, and directly affected the lives of millions of people positively using his platform. I pray others at his level imitate him. Kudos to the Queen for encouraging him

Nah eh! No qualms
Congrats to him shaa
Buh
Rashford being doing modelling on pitch since 1960


Nigga and pobga no they ball again

H

Good one for akuta Rashford

My gee

Rashford is a real Niggar.
Something Mikel obi and some top footballers and entertainers can never do here.

Long live Marcus Rashford!
Long live the United Kingdom!
Big shame to all those who used a similar scheme in Nigeria to enrich themselves.
Vouchers were given to deserving families not family members of political appointees. Everything and everyone accounted for in the UK, but over here it was all audio.

School feeding that nobody benefited from and yet billions was made by already privileged individuals that were entrusted with the process.

If it was Messi or Ronaldo a debate would spring up about whose doing this and that better. Am beginning to hate those two guys. Is like they are bigger than the football club they play for.

Congratulations. It was well deserved

Congratulations. It was well deserved.

congrats

Well deserved



But still a member of penchester united.

Dizzyrascal:
Long live Marcus Rashford!
Long live the United Kingdom!
Big shame to all those who used a similar scheme in Nigeria to enrich themselves.
Vouchers were given to deserving families not family members of political appointees. Everything and everyone accounted for in the UK, but over here it was all audio.

School feeding that nobody benefited from and yet billions was made by already privileged individuals that were entrusted with the process.

You are a 101% right sir.

oluwatosink:
Rashford is a real Niggar.
Something Mikel obi and some top footballers and entertainers can never do here.

You need a platform which means you need talent to be able to do that sort of thing sir.