Marcus Rashford has become just as synonymous with playing for England and Manchester United, as he is with campaigning for free school meals for children.
The football star came to the fore during the 2020 lockdown after he teamed up with 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.
Support behind the initiative blew up and quickly raised over £20m to provide food for children nationwide and not just in Marcus's hometown. His campaign to end child food poverty granted him an MBE that year.
"Marcus is one of the warmest and most genuine young men you could meet. His moral compass is completely in the right place" - Tom Kerridge, Marcus's fellow food poverty campaigner
On his #EndChildFoodPoverty website, Marcus writes: "No child in the UK should be going to bed hungry. Whatever your feeling, opinion, or judgement, food poverty is never the child's fault. Let's protect our young."
During the pandemic, the sports star joined forces with award-winning chef Tom Kerridge to encourage families across the country to cook filling, nutritious, low-cost meals as part of Marcus' #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign.
Tom told HELLO!: "Marcus is one of the warmest and most genuine young men you could meet. His moral compass is completely in the right place. Irrespective of what he does for a living, he genuinely wants to help children from underprivileged backgrounds and give them an equal footing for their futures."
Through the #WriteNow campaign, Marcus is also encouraging people to write to their MP to end child food poverty and has drafted a letter on his website.
The 23-year-old also teamed up with Macmillan Publishers to launch a book club to help vulnerable and underprivileged children experience the joys of reading. He released a children's motivational book titled You Are A Champion in April 2021 with the intention of freely distributing 50,000 books.
The football hero is also not afraid to get stuck in with the physical side of philanthropy. In 2019, alongside Selfridges, he launched a Christmas campaign to combat youth homelessness. Members of the public were encouraged to fill shoeboxes with essential items such as gloves, hats and toothpaste, and drop them off at Selfridges branches to be passed on to homeless shelters.
Marcus personally delivered 300 boxes to Centrepoint, of which Prince William is patron.
Earlier this year, Marcus was reunited with the future King as he received his MBE at Windsor Castle for his campaign to help vulnerable children.
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