Marcus Rashford slams free school meal deliveries as footballer holds talks with catering firm | OneFootball

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·13 January 2021

Marcus Rashford slams free school meal deliveries as footballer holds talks with catering firm

Article image:Marcus Rashford slams free school meal deliveries as footballer holds talks with catering firm

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has continued his fight for under privileged school children, by taking the catering firm, who supply the free school meal deliveries, to task.

Rashford shared this image of an alleged £30 food delivery and slammed the contents.


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The England international was awarded an MBE for his tireless campaigning on behalf of children, for whom he forced the government into a U-turn over a decision to stop the free school meals. Though a rich Premier League star these days, Rashford once relied on these school dinners for survival as he grew up in tough circumstances.

Since posting the images of the meagre food parcel on Twitter, it has emerged that Chartwells is the supplier, who are members of the footballer’s child poverty task force and have the responsibility to provide substantial and nutritious food to these children during lockdown.

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After the footballer held talks with the company, Chartwells was summoned to discussions with the Department For Education after those shocking photos were leaked on social media. In response, the company apologised for the quantity of food that they had provided in the pictured parcel and announced that it would be refunding the costs of any under-par deliveries.

Rashford reacted by raising concerns about the amount of food being given to the most vulnerable children and called for independent businesses to mobilise to help distribute parcels. Indeed, the footballer said: “FSM Hampers are currently distributed to provide 10 lunch meals per child across two weeks. This concerns me firstly as I relied on breakfast club. Is one meals a day from Monday to Friday sufficient for most vulnerable children?”

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Chartwells have received terrible public reaction to this story and understandably so. The company had previous tweeted their delight at being involved in the project by stating: “We are proud to be the first school caterer to join Child Food Poverty Taskforce formed by Marcus Rashford. Marcus Rashford’s campaign shines much needed spotlight on the issue of child food poverty.”

Meanwhile, Chartwells claimed that the photograph of the shocking food parcel showed five days of free school lunches not 10, and the charge for food, packaging and distribution was £10.50 not £30. They then added: “We are very sorry the quantity has fallen short in this instance. Our 10 day hampers typically include wide variety of nutritious food items to support the provision of lunches for children.”

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