Marcus Rashford discusses child poverty work in online call with 200 youngsters

Footballer and campaigner Marcus Rashford has taken part in a virtual meeting with around 200 children in Fife to talk about work to tackle poverty.

The Manchester United and England forward joined a Zoom call on Tuesday organised by the Cottage Family Centre in Kirkcaldy.

He later tweeted his thanks to those who took part, while organisations involved praised the discussions held on efforts to tackle child poverty.

Rashford said: “Spent my afternoon with 200 children from Kirkcaldy, Fife.

“It was lovely to speak to you all, thank you for making me feel so welcome.”

Rashford has 4.2 million followers on Twitter and uses social media as a force for good.

The 23-year-old has become an anti-poverty campaigner and successfully lobbied the UK Government into a U-turn over its free school meals policy in England.

He has pledged to end child food poverty and make sure the next generation starts life with a level playing field.

Children who took part in the call – which was set up with the help of former prime minister Gordon Brown – were able to ask Rashford questions about his work to tackle poverty.

Craig Simpson is chairman of Templehall United in Kirkcaldy and was on the call with other youth teams.

He told Clyde 1 radio: “For a 23-year-old who’s one of the biggest players in the world at the moment to take 50 minutes of his time to speak to kids in Kirkcaldy, hundreds of miles away from Manchester, he’s an ideal role model for children today.

“Football gets a lot of bad press but for him to do that and to take the time to answer some really tricky questions from the kids, it was brilliant.”