Council committee hopes England striker Marcus Rashford can help them give food poverty the boot in Northampton

The borough council’s food poverty panel was hoping to extend an invite to the England and Manchester United striker to speak with groups which are tackling the growing number of people in the town who go hungry and need to use food banks.

The 22-year-old forward received widespread praise for his campaign which successfully lobbied the Government to extend free school meals for this summer. He has since helped to form a taskforce with major supermarkets that is backing the National Food Strategy, an independent review of UK food policy.

Some of the policy ideas also form part of recommendations that look set to be made by the food poverty panel in Northampton following a 15-month investigation to examine how widespread it is in the town.

The recommendations include the council holding a thorough investigation to find out where food poverty ‘gaps’ exist in the town; promoting breastfeeding; encouraging allotment holders and shops to give away excess produce as emergency food aid; and urging the new unitary council that will be formed in April to become an accredited Living Wage employer.

They have also urged the promotion of Healthy Start vouchers and want the uptake of the scheme improved locally. The vouchers allow pregnant mothers, or parents who have children under the age of four, to get vouchers for fresh food and vegetables if they also claim benefits.

The latter idea in particular appears to be a key policy in the taskforce the striker has set up. And councillors on the committee were so impressed with Marcus’ campaign that they formally recognised his work at their latest meeting, and are hoping that the striker might be interested in joining forces with them in some way.

Speaking at the latest meeting on September 24, the chairman of the committee, Councillor Dennis Meredith, said: “With the COVID virus all the footballers are on lockdown and not allowed to go out anywhere. In other times it would have been a good idea if we could have invited him to come down, but he wouldn’t be able to because the club he plays for wouldn’t allow it anyway.”

Councillor Emma Roberts suggested: “We’re holding meetings on Zoom so could we invite Marcus to come along to a Zoom meeting or to take part in a Zoom meeting with some of the groups. Could we facilitate that? I just wonder whether having Northampton as part of his studies or part of a national action plan goes alongside the recommendations we’re making to lobby national policy.”

Speaking about Mr Rashford’s campaign in the summer, Councillor Cathrine Russell added: “I just think what he did was absolutely amazing, and I thought he needed recognition.”

Councillor Meredith hoped that once life was back to normal, the possibility of inviting the footballer to Northampton could become a possibility again. He added: “But if a vaccine is not discovered in six months time we’ll all be up the creek, so we’ll just have to see how it goes on that.”

The draft report from the food poverty panel can be read in full here.