Rugby supports Rashford campaign
Rugby clubs, many who have been helping to feed those in need throughout the pandemic, stepped up to support Marcus Rashford’s school meals campaign over half term.
England women’s captain, Sarah Hunter, covered the cost of vouchers for families entitled to them at her old school Benton Dene Primary, in North Shields, Newcastle.
The school thanked her on Facebook, saying: “Sarah Hunter MBE, who is a former pupil and captain of England’s women’s rugby union team, has been in touch to say that she would like to buy a voucher for all of our free school meal families.
“She said she wants to be able to give back to a school who gave her so much. We are so touched by this amazing act of kindness and hope you will all join us in saying a huge thank you for this selfless act.”
Richmond Rugby supplied local children with a free nutritional meal during half-term with their catering team cooking meals delivered by club volunteers to local school children.
Head of Community, Dom Palacio, said: “We firmly believe all children deserve access to free school meals throughout the holidays and we are extremely proud to be in a position to support those that need it most. This is not about politics or picking sides, it’s about doing the right thing at a challenging time and supporting those in our community who find themselves in the most vulnerable of situations.”
This builds on Richmond’s summer meals initiative which saw up to 50 local school children throughout the borough receive free meals each day during the holiday months of July, August and early September. The initiative was proudly supported by club partners Community Group and The Atlas Foundation, alongside partner schools Grey Court School and Orleans Park School, with assistance from Ham Youth Club Richmond.
At Tabard RFC they have been working with A Plate for London throughout the pandemic, helping feed those who need it most, and latterly have concentrated on providing recipe boxes with ingredients for meals for different sized families in need.
Led by women’s team captain Laura-Jo Pearce - who is also chair of Hertfordshire women’s and girls’ rugby, and who used to work for a London restaurant - just before half-term provided boxes for 40 families containing recipes and ingredients for nutritious meals for families to cook at home, working with Radlett Churches.
There are now plans to start selling their recipe boxes and for every one sold to provide another for a family in need. All the work is being done at the clubhouse at King George V Playing Fields, Cobden Hill, where there is a band of willing volunteers and plenty of space, especially while the changing rooms and kitchens are not catering for rugby.
Ellingham and Ringwood rugby club has collected nearly 900kg of food for Ringwood Foodbank since April. Aware that the most vulnerable in their community continue to need help, they sent a fresh appeal which saw their girls’ squad, helped by England’s Poppy Cleall and Wales’ Georgia Evans, stepping up to help.
Said Mark Johnson in his email for help: “Everyone has seen the efforts that Marcus Rashford has made to raise awareness of the issues facing many families at this time. We want to make a special effort over half-term towards helping to ensure no child goes hungry this winter.”
The response was club members taking food along to Sunday training and Mark delivering 97kg of supplies to the food bank warehouse at the start of half term week.
At Newton Abbot RFC in Devon, Mike Saxton contacted other club directors on Friday 23rd September in response to Marcus Rashford’s campaign and all agreed that they wanted the club to help vulnerable families on a “no questions asked” basis.
By the Friday afternoon a plan was in place. Their social media messaging went crazy and resulted in the club providing 85 meals for youngsters in the area and so far have had £1,400 donated by the local community to help their continuing endeavours. Any funds left after this project will go towards a similar idea around the Christmas period. Offering this service has also helped the club identify those who may benefit from the RFU Families Fund Project.
People can contact them, before 10pm the day before, with how many children they need to feed and detailing any allergies. They then pick up meals from the club around lunchtime the following day. Local businesses have been supporting with food and drinks and a local school contributed food bags.
The club has a partnership with Homeless in Teignbridge Support (HITS) which formed during lockdown. HITS needed extra cooking capacity so the club offered their kitchen and were able to provide around 80 meals on Wednesdays to the people in need. This success meant HITS needed extra delivery drivers and senior players stepped forward and drove their cars to distribute the meals in the surrounding villages, some of them even picking up extra bits of shopping to help where people were medically isolating.
