Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has been awarded the 2021 Fred and Anne Jarvis Award by the National Education union for his campaigning on school meaks.
The award is named after former NUT General Secretary, Fred Jarvis, and his wife, Anne Jarvis, former chair of the Education Committee for Barnet Council, who died in 2020 and 2007 respectively. Previous winners of the award include Malala Yousafzai and Michael Rosen.
Nominations this year came from nine branches of the National Education Union, including Manchester NEU, who said “Marcus Rashford has made a huge impact on children’s lives across the UK, and as such has been a credit to Manchester schools.”
Accepting the award, Marcus Rashford MBE said:
“A big thank you to NEU for giving me this award. I feel really privileged and honoured to receive this award. I’m obviously very happy and grateful for the support that I’ve been given, just by the nation really, and I feel like together we’ve pushed each other to strive for more – and hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Covid has brought into sharp focus how poverty affects children’s health, mental wellbeing and their education. Marcus Rashford knows from personal experience how vital free school meals are, but access was under threat for millions of others at several points during the pandemic. Marcus has played a committed and inspirational role in speaking up for young people affected by poverty, keeping food on their table. We have no doubt he will be a powerful campaigner on this issue for many years to come.”
