Burberry supports Marcus Rashford drive to feed and nurture kids globally

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 2, 2020

Burberry is adding to its series of major charity initiatives and on Monday said that it’s “championing the power of giving back — to nurture the next generation, allowing them to explore their dreams and always go beyond” in a link-up with Marcus Rashford.

It's partnering with Rashford, who's an English international footballer and youth advocate, and also with charities supporting young people across the world, “empowering the voices that will shape our tomorrow”. 

While footballers when they're off the field are best known for activities such as product endorsements, brand launches and colourful private lives, Rashford has become a different kind of hero to many beyond the sporting world for his child poverty campaigning. 

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This summer, having raised £20 million in financial and food donations for food distribution charity FareShare, he campaigned for the extension of holiday food provision to support 1.3 million vulnerable children affected by the pandemic, which led to a swift government U-turn.

He’s since formed the Child Food Poverty Taskforce, “bringing the biggest players in the European food industry together to stand united in finding a long-term sustainable framework to combat child food poverty across the UK and stabilise the households of millions of children”.

Burberry is joining in and is providing donations to FareShare, which will fund over 200,000 meals distributed across 11,000 charities and community groups across the UK. 

It’s also pledging to support UK youth organisations in Manchester and London and charities with a global reach. These programmes range from “education, to supporting young creatives and artists, and helping entrepreneurs to tackle some of the world’s significant challenges”. It said these initiatives “will positively affect the lives of tens of thousands of young people across the world – encouraging and enabling them to achieve”.

In the UK capital, it’s working with London Youth, which supports a network of over 600 community youth organisations and “creates thousands of engaging opportunities for young people each year”. This means grants for 15 youth centres.

In Manchester, it’s supporting Norbrook Youth Club and Woodhouse Park Lifestyle Centre, both of which “played a pivotal role in Rashford’s childhood”. 

It’s also contributing to Wide Rainbow, a non-profit group based in New York City providing access to the arts and arts education in neighbourhoods across the US with little to no resources. The donation “will provide art supplies, food deliveries and music education to young people in these communities as well as fund the creation of art murals to invigorate schools and shelters in New York and Los Angeles”.

Additionally, it’s partnering with the International Youth Foundation to contribute to the Global Youth Resiliency Fund. The aim here is to enable young entrepreneurs and community leaders, especially in Asia, “to develop solutions to challenges including closing nutrition gaps and unlocking access to livelihoods”.