A Bucks teenager has been praised by Marcus Rashford for setting up a charity that has delivered over 1,000 free meals to people in need.
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Sulayman, 14, was inspired by Rashford’s ongoing campaign to provide free school meals so he decided to set up his own charity, Buckingham Free Meals.
The Manchester United star has now tweeted his appreciation.
Appreciate you Sulayman 👏🏾 https://t.co/MQ00TNJ4zr
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) October 30, 2020
The charity was set up in October and delivers meals to anyone who needs them.
Local businesses have donated food, including a local butcher who provided meat for the charities' Christmas meals.
Buckingham Free Meals will begin to give out meals every Friday this lockdown to people who email the charity at buckinghamfreemeals@gmail.com
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The youngster admitted how much of an inspiration Rashford has been for him and hopes his charity can continue its work to feed people in the area.
He said: “It was first in October when the government decided not to carry on rolling out the free school meals voucher during the October half term which caused a lot of outraged.
“From there Marcus Rashford became quite an influence for me.
“He started campaigning to make sure free school meals were given out by the government.
“We served about 500 meals in the October half term.
"And then during the Christmas half term another 500 to 600 so in 2020 we delivered over a 1000 meals.
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“We deliver to anyone; if there isolated, vulnerable or if they can’t get the help they need from the council or government.
“In the October half term we had physical donations and there was around £2000 worth of donations.
“During the Christmas holidays we started financial donations and we’ve raised over £3000.
“We have also got donations from the Buckingham butcher who gave us meat for meals as well as a Christmas lunch voucher.
“We also have loads of donations from local business as well.
“When we saw there were so many people that needed help we carried on into the Christmas holidays
“Right now we're planning that every Friday evening during lockdown we will be giving meals out to anyone that emails us.
“There is a lot of older people who are isolating and live alone.
“And people that are isolating because of coronavirus they have contacted us as it is much harder for them to cook and to find the right help.
“Some of the older people are disabled and now people can't mix between households they can’t really cook for themselves.”
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