Marcus Rashford

Marcus Rashford MBE is an English professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team. In 2020, Rashford was recognized as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his efforts to combat the issues of homelessness and child hunger.

A Manchester United player from the age of seven, Rashford scored two goals on both his first-team debut against Midtjylland in the UEFA Europa League in February 2016 and his Premier League debut against Arsenal three days later. He also scored in his first Manchester derby match, his first EFL Cup match and his first UEFA Champions League match. With United, Rashford has so far won the FA Cup, EFL Cup, FA Community Shield and Europa League.

Rashford scored on his England debut in May 2016, becoming the youngest English player to score in his first senior international match. He played at the UEFA Euro 2016 as the tournament's youngest player, and also represented England at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. His success has been credited to his drive and personal ambition both on and off the pitch, and is viewed as a role model for younger players due to his success at a young age.

In March 2020, during the UK lockdown imposed by Boris Johnson's government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rashford teamed up with the poverty and food waste charity FareShare to deliver meals to those in the Greater Manchester area who were no longer receiving their free school meals, as well as to children who attended community centres and school breakfast clubs. With an initial target of supporting 400,000 children in the region, the initiative quickly raised over £20 million to provide food for children nationwide who, if still at school, would be receiving free school meals. On 11 June, Rashford revealed that the charity had been able to reach three million children across the country, a figure which rose to four million the following month.

In June 2020, Rashford wrote an open letter to the UK government calling on them to end UK child poverty. A day later, the government announced a change in policy regarding the extension of free school meals for children during the summer holidays, with Rashford's campaign credited as a major turning point in governmental talks. Rashford described himself as "proud" of what he had helped accomplish on behalf of 1.3 million children. In September 2020, in an attempt to tackle child food poverty, Rashford announced that he had set up the Child Food Poverty Task Force in collaboration with several UK food shops, manufacturers, charities, and delivery companies.

After he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in October, Rashford vowed to continue his campaign, and a week later he began a petition on the UK Parliament petitions website to end child food poverty, with demands made for expansion of the free school meals program, provision of meals and activities during school holidays, and an increase in value of Healthy Start vouchers. The petition received over 100,000 signatures in 10 hours, meaning it had passed the threshold to be considered for parliamentary debate, and received over 200,000 signatures in the first day.With the petition close to 300,000 signatures after less than a week, Labour proposed an opposition day debate on the matter of extending free school meals, which was rejected by a majority of 61. Rashford criticised those who voted against it as lacking humanity.

In the wake of the popularity generated by his charity work, Rashford signed with American rapper Jay-Z's entertainment agency Roc Nation in April 2020, with president Michael Yormark saying he was a "shining example" of somebody who was "passionate about community". In July, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester in recognition of his work to end child poverty in the UK, becoming the youngest person to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.