A football club, inspired by Marcus Rashford’s campaign to provide free school meals during half-term holidays, is hoping their latest initiative will be the start of supporting their community for years to come.
March Town FC will be running free meals for children from Burrowmoor, Cavalry and Westwood primary schools over eight school days between December 21-January 4, excluding Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Casey Logan, who plays for March, spoke to club chairman Phil White and both were keen on providing help for those that need it most in the town.
“We had a chat one day that sparked an idea about how we have all the necessary facilities at the club to use the platform Marcus has created and give something back to our local community,” Casey said.
The Hares’ idea has spurred on since speaking to the March and District Community Action Team (MADCAT), a team of organisations that aim to tackle hunger in the town and surrounding villages, earlier this month.
As well as helping the club, MADCAT is also running a Christmas food project, which includes delivering at least 700 hampers containing foods such as biscuits, meat and vegetables to benefit over 2,000 people.
“Casey rang me and I told him what we are up to, so it was a case of joining up so everybody is getting as many offers as possible,” Katherine Nightingale, of MADCAT, said.
Hot meals and sandwiches will be made available at the club’s Robingoodfellow’s Lane ground, which Casey hopes will be the first of many schemes to benefit the next generation.
“We do not want this to simply be a one off,” he added.
“The possibilities are endless with what we can do; it could even stretch into sports programmes and anything else that could help the youth of this town.”
Vouchers will be provided to each school and distributed to a child or parent, where they then hand their voucher to a club official.
That voucher will then be exchanged for a lunch or meal, either as a sit-down meal or takeaway, at either 12pm or 1.30pm and will be returned for reuse the following week.
For more information, speak to Kirsten Lofts of Burrowmoor, Helen Sidaway of Westwood, Sarah Edwards of Cavalry, or call the MADCAT team on 01354 463711.
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