INSPIRATIONAL YOUNG PERSON OF THE MONTH - NOVEMBER

What is more impressive: winning the Premier League, scoring in your first game for England, being awarded an MBE, or working to eradicate racism, homelessness, and poverty among children?

Well, our Inspirational Young Person of the Month has done all of that and more.

Of course, we're referring to Marcus Rashford (MBE), the spectacular Premier League and England football player.

Marcus is well-known to millions of people due to donning Manchester United's legendary number 10 jersey. Yet Marcus has been chosen as our Inspirational Young Person of the Month for his activism, his determination, and his willingness to use his platform and influence to positively impact young people all around the country.

For those unaware, Marcus was brought up in a single-parent household just outside of Manchester. Marcus’s mother frequently had to work several jobs at once to support their family and she often skipped meals to ensure that he and his four siblings would not go hungry. However, Marcus’s family frequently relied on food banks, breakfast clubs, and free school meals. Marcus has stated that he occasionally received free food from his mother's workplace, which is in part where he learned the value of charity.

When asked about his experience of this in interviews, Marcus states ‘when you come from a place of struggle and pain, a lot of the time it switches and becomes your source of drive and motivation’. Marcus’s own experience of poverty has ignited his desire to do more than just tackle on the pitch. Now, he tackles the societal issues of child poverty, racism, and homelessness.

Let’s look at the amazing work that Marcus has already achieved so far.

In 2019, Marcus helped create the ‘In the Box’ campaign - an initiative to supply homeless people with much-needed essentials over the Christmas period. Using his platform to spread the word, he encouraged members of the public to donate items to those adults who were in a position of greater need. Showing his dedication to the cause, both he and his mother attended shelters over winter to help distribute the boxes.

In 2020, at the beginning of the global pandemic, the charity ‘FareShare’ called for donations so they could aid individuals who were likely to be most impacted. They sought to prevent child food poverty by distributing food and gathering money. Marcus ran a campaign in reaction to this and by June 2020 had raised over £20 million, enough to buy almost three million meals.

With many children being schooled from home during the pandemic, it became clear that food poverty would increase due to a lack of free school meals. Marcus lobbied the UK government to offer free school lunches to kids throughout the summer months as well. Without Marcus' open letter to the UK government, this would not have resulted in a change in policy.

After receiving his MBE, Marcus started a petition on the UK Parliament Petitions website. By expanding the free school lunch programme, offering meals and activities throughout the summer, and increasing the value of the Healthy Start food vouchers, the goal was to abolish child food poverty. The petition received 300,000 signatures in the first week, forcing a debate in parliament.

Unfortunately, this debate was rejected by the government.

In response, Marcus started using his Twitter account to promote restaurants, people, charities, and small businesses that were willing to donate to FareShare. After receiving public support, he was able to donate 1,000 food vouchers and soon, councils and businesses joined in. As a result of Marcus's effort, it was revealed in November that the government would give disadvantaged families assistance of around £400 million over the following year to help with food and household expenses.

Also in 2020, Marcus created the ‘Marcus Rashford Book Club’. The Book Club has given away over 100,000 free books to young people living in the most underprivileged neighbourhoods. Marcus states that he read his first book at the age of seventeen, and he attributes this to altering the course of his life.

Marcus recently celebrated his 25th birthday, and with so much under his belt already, we can’t wait to see what he does in the future.

For all of his amazing work thus far, we would like to thank Marcus Rashford – a truly inspirational and influential young person.