Morley FC raises thousands after being inspired by Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign

A Leeds football club has raised thousands to help feed children in Morley after being inspired by Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign.
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Footballers from Morley AFC decided to run, walk or cycle a total of 1,532 miles during the second lockdown to raise money to provide children with meals during the Christmas holidays.

Every two miles will represent each of the 766 children who claim free school meals in the local area.

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The idea began after the lockdown was announced, when the team decided to take on a fitness challenge as a way to keep players healthy and active.

Morley AFC 2nd team.Morley AFC 2nd team.
Morley AFC 2nd team.

However, first-team player Jared Lloyd Jones approached team manager Kevin Mckay about making the challenge a fundraiser instead after being inspired by the Manchester United forward’s headline-making campaign.

Kevin, 34, from Morley, said: “We initially wanted to do a fitness challenge to stay active but also to keep in contact and give people something positive to focus on during lockdown.

“Jared approached me and said ‘it’s fantastic we’re doing this but we could do it to raise some money to help the local community’.

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“We all have great admiration for the way Marcus Rashford uses his footballing position to help end childhood poverty so we thought we would try to do something similar at a local level.

Morley FC has raised thousands to help feed children during the school holidays. Pictured: Morley AFC first team.Morley FC has raised thousands to help feed children during the school holidays. Pictured: Morley AFC first team.
Morley FC has raised thousands to help feed children during the school holidays. Pictured: Morley AFC first team.

“We decided to raise money and work with local primary schools to give Christmas food hampers to families that need support.

“A lot of the players grew up in Morley so it’s very close to home and we’re passionate about giving back and helping those who need it.”

The club officially launched the fundraising challenge on Thursday, November 5 and was quickly joined by other sports teams such as Morley Running Club, Morley Cricket Club and Morley Glen Juniors.

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Soon the whole community had rallied around the club, tracking their efforts and sharing photographs online.

Morley AFC under 21's team.Morley AFC under 21's team.
Morley AFC under 21's team.

Kevin, a former Morley primary school teacher and now co-founder of Rethink Food CIC, said: “It's not just the club that's taken on the challenge. People have been recording miles while walking the dog, walking to school instead of driving or going on family walks at the weekend.

“It seems to be having a really positive impact and giving people a purpose to get out there and get active.”

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It wasn’t long until the club had surpassed their initial fundraising target of £600 and within one week donations had reached more than £1,350.

This means the club has raised enough to supply the Christmas hampers and are now able to work on providing Christmas dinners for children who would otherwise go without.

Kevin said: “The level of support didn’t surprise me because I know how good the Morley community is but seeing everyone get behind us was an incredible feeling.

“We raised double the amount of money we needed in the first four days which is amazing.

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“We’ve raised enough for the food hampers so now we are working with a local company called Lean Lunch to provide children with a nutritious Christmas dinner. We’ve already contacted the local schools to see who they think would benefit.”

Kevin, who is expecting a baby with his partner Sarina, 31, any day now, said none of this would be possible without the amazing response of the people in Morley.

The expectant father said: “The cause gained momentum quickly but the passion was there from the off.

“Seeing the community come together just really shows where we are at at the moment.

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"It is a really, really tough time but people are taking positives from that and looking out for each other.

“Everyone is just really going the extra mile to make sure that we are there working together as a community.”

If you would like to donate towards the Morley Town AFC Lockdown Miles For Christmas campaign, please visit the GoFundMe page.

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