Motivational Monday - Marcus Rashford MBE

Written by Ella-Rose Norridge

Early Life

Rashford was born in Manchester on October 31st 1997. Legend tells us if you’re born on Halloween, you’re likely to have special powers, and boy does Rashford have a few of them! He grew up in a single-parent family where his mother would work multiple jobs, with 14 hours shifts most days in an attempt to make ends meet. Even working as hard as she did, she admits there were times when there wasn’t even a loaf of bread in the house.

“We relied on breakfast clubs, free school meals and the kindness of neighbours” -Marcus Rashford

In order to protect her children and ensure they wouldn’t go to bed hungry, she would often skip meals herself - although Rashford recalls there were evenings when there was no food to be had and he’d hear his mother cry herself to sleep trying to think how she was going to get through. Rashford started kicking a ball around with his brothers when he was just two years old and he began playing football for the Fletcher Moss Rangers at the age of 5; starting out as a goalie where his coach noticed his talent was on a different level from the other kids.

Career

When Rashford was just 7 years old he joined the Academy System with Manchester United where the former youth coach Paul McGuiness saw his potential to go far. While training with the academy, the reality of his home situation was still very prevalent. There were times when he wasn’t able to get to training because he couldn’t afford transport there and his mother and siblings would be working or unable to drive him. The coaches were aware of his home situation so either organised to pick him up or drop him home themselves, or they’d organise drivers to taxi him. At 11, Rashford was selected for the Manchester United Schoolboy Scholars Scheme which is usually reserved for players age 12+, but given his obvious talent, he was offered his place a year early - thus making him the youngest member in the history of the scheme!

“Always train hard, work harder, never give up” -Marcus Rashford

While training at the academy he was provided with accommodation, taking pressure off his family to provide for him. When training with the scheme he was fast-tracked to improve his skill set so started playing cage football with the likes of Jesse Lingard, who was four years his senior and given the point at which he was in his career was a huge age gap! From this scheme, he went straight on to play for the Under-15 team where he was told by coaches he had what it takes to go all the way! By the time he was 16, he was training with Man Utd. He still says to this day that the training sessions he had with David Moyes were “priceless” and they paid off because with more regular training it didn’t take long until coaches were using phrases such as “high-flyer” to describe him.

“I want to score more goals, the main ambition is goals” -Marcus Rashford

Free School Meals Campaign

Having grown up reliant on free school meals, Rashford empathised with all the families that were to be hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The families on the lowest incomes across the country who struggled to make ends meet even when the children were at school and were provided with one or two free meals a day were now being relied on to provide three meals a day. Rashford wanted to ensure that the school meals would be there as a safety net for families, where they knew no matter what their income was their children would still be fed. Another pressing issue was even if the parents could manage to supply their children with food, the chances of it being nutritionally beneficial were low, while their school meals provided them with the correct nutrients to curb deficiencies.

“I will keep fighting until no child in the UK has to worry about where their next meal is coming from” -Marcus Rashford

Rashford implemented three key demands for the government; the provision of meals and activities to low-income families during lockdown and school holidays, the expansion of the Healthy Start Voucher Scheme (providing nutrient efficient foods to pregnant women and young children), and finally, a full re-scale review of the free school meals system. These demands, although not met completely to begin with, forced the government to make a U-turn on their original policy denying these children free meals. Rashford also fought to lower the threshold for the eligibility of free meals so a wider number of children were provided for. This particular petition came in October and by the end of the month, it had over 1.1 million signatories, triggering an official government hearing. Prior to this call for the change, the Child Poverty Action Group estimated that two in five children who are living below the poverty line are not entitled to free school meals. While running his campaigns for change, Rashford stated he believed if the government were aware of the things he was aware of and if they had spoken to some of the country’s most vulnerable as he had, they would look to review the policy off their own backs.

“This is not about politics; this is about humanity” -Marcus Rashford

As a result of the work, Rashford has put in, 1.3 million school children were provided with free meals over the course of the pandemic. The government agreed to a £170 million COVID Winter Grant Scheme, ensuring those most vulnerable were fed over the winter months. £220 million is to be provided for extra food and activities for children over the school holidays as well as an extra £16 million donated to food distribution charities and an increase in the value of Healthy Start vouchers.

“We’ve got a million miles still to go” -Marcus Rashford