The UEFA champions league came at us very fast and one person who seems to have stole the show is the Member of the British Empire awardee; Marcus Rashford who earlier this week petitioned the UK parliament for an extension in the free school meals campaign to function over the holidays until Easter 2021, instead of only during school term. The Manchester United star has been passionate in his efforts to combat child hunger across the UK. It followed an extension for free school meals available to eligible children during the Easter holidays earlier in the year, but encountering a road block in October when the Labour bid to extend free school meals was rejected by MPs in Commons 322 to 261.
The government blocked the bid and decided not to follow in the footsteps of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, stating that they had already given councils £63 million in funding for families who are in disadvantaged positions financially due to Covid-19, in addition to increasing welfare support by £9.3 billion.
But Rashford has voiced his disappointment at the UK Government, taking to Twitter to express his frustrations and launching a petition urging the government to double down in their efforts to end child poverty.
And though Labour’s bid was rejected, several businesses promised to aid Rashford and start their own campaign to provide free school meals during holidays, with the forward retweeting the locations of those who had stepped up.
He stepped up again to show us all how golden his personality is when he sacrificed his choice to a hattrick of goals for Anthony Martial to score a penalty awarded to Manchester United in their champions league showdown against RB Leipzig. At 3-0 up and with a chance to score a hat-trick, Rashford showed his magnanimous spirit by handing the ball over to Martial for the Frenchman to score from the spot.
Asked if there had been a discussion, Rashford said: “A little bit, a little bit. I feel confident with Anthony taking them as well. So no problem.” But there was still enough time remaining for Marcus Rashford to grab his third and become the second United player – after his boss Solskjaer – to get a treble of goal as a substitute.
Manchester United Manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “Marcus has showed he can keep focusing on what’s important on and off the pitch at the moment. He did really well today coming off the bench.”
It has been quite a good month for the striker, back to back wins in the UCL, honoured with an MBE and seeing his petition to end child food poverty surpassing one million signatures. He is indeed a prince of Manchester.
