Rashford inspires Leeds Utd players to donate towards free school meals

London, Oct 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) Players of Premier League club Leeds United have thrown their support behind the 'End Child Food Poverty' initiative by donating 25,000 pounds to support as many struggling children and families as possible in UK.

Following a campaign led by Manchester United's Marcus Rashford to end child food poverty, the Leeds United players wanted to join the city's business community in rallying behind schemes up and down the country to help provide free meals, with the Scotland international encouraging more people to get involved as "no child should ever go hungry", read a statement on the club's official website.

On Thursday, Rashford had urged local businesses to tweet using the hashtag #endchildfoodpoverty, which would allow the 22-year-old to locate them.

Captain Liam Cooper announced on Saturday morning that the squad will guarantee a donation of 25,000 pounds to the campaign and continue to show their support and help where needed, to try and ensure that no family goes without during the school holidays.

The program, initiated by Leeds Community Foundation, is aimed at helping to reduce the impact of holiday hunger and other pressures that families experience, as well as providing increased opportunities and experiences for young people in the areas of greatest need.

In July, Rashford wrote an open letter to Members of Parliament about his personal experiences of using foodbanks and that influenced a change in government policy, enabling children who have free school meals in term-time to continue receiving them during the summer.

In addition, his collaboration with poverty and food waste charity, FareShare, led to 20 million pounds being raised in financial and food donations and 3.9 million meals being distributed to vulnerable people every week during the Covid-19 crisis.

Source: IANS