Rashford building free-meal coalition on Twitter after UK Government votes down proposal

Manchester United star Marcus Rashford has taken his fight for low-income children to Twitter, where he's building a coalition of vendors who will provide free school meals over the holidays.

Rashford hit out at the UK Government earlier this week as a vote to extend free school meals over the holidays until Easter 2021 was defeated.

Though the motion failed, a number of businesses vowed on Friday to step up and provide free meals over the holidays – with Rashford retweeting many of the offers and including the location of the businesses.

After a day spent amplifying the voices of those pledging to help, Rashford posted a message of gratitude on Twitter. 

"I’m signing off with a feeling [of] pride tonight. The superstars of this nation lie in local communities. Even after taking the biggest hits you have wrapped your arms around your community to catch [these] children as they fell. I really can’t thank you enough, you’re amazing," the forward wrote.

"To the Twitter community, keep sharing these posts via #endchildfoodpoverty[.] Every child should be going to bed tonight feeling like they DO matter. Overwhelmed and thankful."

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Ben Bradley continued to feud with Rashford on social media while insisting on a face-to-face meeting with the Red Devils forward.

Bradley has said that the head of one of the country's "most deprived schools" agrees that there's a better way to help underprivileged children than the government funding a free meal extension.

After saying his invitation wasn't answered, Bradley said: "No reply to this yet so far as I can see. You were very quick to reply to previous tweets... Would love to invite you to Oak Tree, to discuss the needs of the kids face to face, and why FSM is not the right approach."

Amid some criticism over Rashford's political intervention, Juan Mata backed his team-mate's fight on Friday.

"I'm very proud of what Marcus has been doing. On the pitch, of course, we know how good he is and he is still performing very well but off the pitch also, the work he's been doing over the last months has been great," Mata told the Pitch to Post Preview podcast.

"He has improved the quality of life for so many kids in this country, which I'm sure everyone is proud of. His family should be proud of him, me, as a team-mate, and the club are very proud of him."