In response to a campaign by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to force the government to provide free school meals to needy children during school holidays,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54669929
footballer Marcus Rashford has said he "couldn't be more proud to call myself British" after the community response to his campaign to get free meals for children during the half-term holiday ..f
www.bbc.co.uk
over 2000 members of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have signed an open letter to the Prime minister in support of the campaign.
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/2200-paediatricians-sign-open-l...
There has been a remarkable backing from around the country to the footballer's plea which has been led by his own experiences of food poverty as a child. This is a good example of how celebrity advocacy supported by professional evidence can make a difference in national policy - I can see a government U-Turn on school meals coming up very soon.
Tony Waterston
CHIFA profile: Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA www.chifa.org He is also a member of the HIFA Steering Group.
www.hifa.org/people/steering-group www.hifa.org/support/members/tony
Tony.Waterston AT newcastle.ac.uk
