The public
response in donating to charity to help feed deprived children after an appeal
by Marcus Rashford has impressed the Manchester United forward.
The 22-year-old
England international teamed up with FareShare, a food distribution charity,
after schools in the Manchester area were closed due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
Donations as of
Wednesday totalled £134,000 ($167,000) surpassing his initial target of
£100,000.
The latter amount
— which Rashford said was a “massive figure” — would feed around
400,000 children.
FareShare
distributes food to 10,943 charities including schools, community centres and
breakfast clubs.
Rashford wanted
to ensure children now restricted to their homes have access to the free meals
they would have received at school.
“The number
of people not being fed is ridiculous,” he told The Times.
“It was
close to one million children (924,325) who were helped every week by FareShare.
“The
donations coming in so quickly showed the togetherness of people.”
Rashford, whose
own donation is the largest the charity received in a year, has been
researching the logistics of distributing food by reading business books.
“Getting the
meals together is one thing, but distribution is just as important as otherwise
it is impossible to get the food out to people,” he said.
As well as his
charity work, Rashford is spending time on more relaxed pursuits such as
judging a poetry competition and learning sign language.
He has also
engaged in a debate on social media with England football legend Gary Lineker
over who is the most graceful player of all time.
Lineker chose
Frenchman Zinedine Zidane. Rashford, who until a back injury in January had been
a shining light for United in the club’s topsy turvy season scoring 19 times in
31 appearances, opted for Diego Maradona.
The Argentinian
might not be music to Lineker’s ears as he was in the England team who lost 2-1
in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final remembered for Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’
goal.
Maradona did,
though, add a second sublime individual goal.
“The
stuff he (Maradona) used to do on the pitch in that era, it was really only him
doing it… Maradona’s mind was so advanced for his time, and his
creativity.”