Boris Johnson Surrenders to Marcus Rashford’s Amazing Twitter Sprints
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Manchester striker breaks down conservative government resistance to feeding the hungry with Twitter onslaught.
On October 26th, Reuters and the Guardian reported British Prime Minister Boris Johnson surrendered to the superior endurance and determination of Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford and agreed to support free school meals.
For a man only 22 years old, Marcus has an impressive record of activism around hunger:
- In October 2019, Rashford partnered with Selfridges, a chain of high-end department stores, to launch the “In the Box” campaign to provide essential items for the homeless during the holidays.
- In March 2020, Rashford partnered with charitable organization Fareshare to deliver meals to kids in the Greater Manchester area who no longer received free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
- On 15 June, Rashford wrote an open letter to the UK government calling on them to end UK child poverty and causing the government to announce the extension of free school meals for children during the summer holidays.
This past summer, the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) program was piloted with the goal of ensuring children in the UK are provided with at least one free meal a day outside school time.
When Conservative Party lawmakers voted down a plan to extend the HAF program and provide meals for kids over Christmas, Marcus Rashford launched a one-man information campaign to pressure Johnson to extend the HAF program and provide meals for 1.3 million children in the UK.
Rashford, who has 3.7 million Twitter followers, used the platform using the hashtag #ENDCHILDFOODPOVERTY to call on local businesses to pledge free lunches for kids over the holidays.
When Rashford received hundreds of responses, he starting retweeting all the local businesses that volunteered to provide free lunches for kids.
