The Manchester United star, 24, who received the award for leading the fight against child poverty, appeared in high spirits as he was presented with the award by the Duke of Cambridge as his proud mother Melanie Maynard watched on.
The footballer is being recognised for his campaign last summer to ensure no child in need went hungry, which forced the Government into a U-turn over providing free school meal vouchers for 1.3million children during the summer holidays.
Speaking after the Windsor Castle investiture ceremony, the striker said he would be giving his MBE to his mother who raised him and his four brothers and sisters.
He said: ‘It seems like there’s a lot going on but for me to put it in the simplest way – I’m trying to give children the things I didn’t have when I was kid. If I did have, I would have been much better off and had many more options in my life.
‘I’m just giving them the opportunity and I think they deserve the opportunity what child doesn’t. For me it’s a punishment for them not to be getting things like meals or supplies of books.
‘And if we can all come together to make these small change – they are small changes but they become big changes once you see the rewards of it – I see a generation that’s coming after me as a very special generation.
Marcus Rashford received his MBE for leading the fight against child poverty during a ceremony hosted by Prince William
The footballer appeared in high spirits as he spoke with the Duke of Cambridge during the ceremony
The footballer is being recognised for his campaign last summer to ensure no child in need went hungry
Rashford arrived at Windsor Castle with his mother Melanie Maynard ahead of the ceremony
‘They just need a bit of guidance and pointing in the right direction and what I’m doing is giving them that.’
After he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list last year Rashford told the public to ‘pat themselves on the back’ for ‘surviving’ the pandemic-hit year of 2020.
He also said he was ‘incredibly honoured and humbled’ to accept an MBE and paid homage to his mother who ‘is the real deserving recipient of the honour’.
The footballer said: ‘I’m incredibly honoured and humbled. As a young black man from Wythenshawe, never did I think I would be accepting an MBE, never mind an MBE at the age of 22.
‘This is a very special moment for myself and my family, but particularly my mum who is the real deserving recipient of the honour.
‘The fight to protect our most vulnerable children is far from over.
‘I would be doing my community, and the families I have met and spoken with, an injustice if I didn’t use this opportunity to respectfully urge the Prime Minister, who recommended me for this honour, to support our children during the October half term with an extension of the voucher scheme, as the furlough scheme comes to an end and we face increased unemployment.
‘Another sticking plaster, but one that will give the parents of millions of children in the UK just one less thing to worry about.
‘Let’s stand together in saying that no children in the UK should be going to bed hungry. As I have said many times before, no matter your feeling or opinion, not having access to food is never the child’s fault.’
Rashford launched his drive after Parliament rejected proposals to provide the free meals for vulnerable children.
His petition urging politicians to go further in tackling child hunger hit 100,000 signatures just 10 hours after it was launched and resulted in the Government eventually changing policy.
The athlete later said that he ‘couldn’t be more proud to call myself British’ after his campaign to provide free meals to children this Christmas sparked an outpouring of support across the country.
He told BBC Newsnight: ‘Growing up we didn’t have a lot, but we always had the safety net of the community. That community was my family.
‘When we stumbled, we were caught with open arms. Even at their lowest point, having felt the devastating effects of the pandemic, local businesses have wrapped arms around their communities today, catching vulnerable children as they fell.
‘I couldn’t be more proud to call myself British tonight. I am truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
‘You want to talk about ”celebrities” and ”superstars”, look no further than my Twitter feed and that’s exactly what you’ll find.’
After he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list last year Rashford paid tribute to his mother.
He told The Guardian: ‘She’s everything. Every positive characteristic you see in me is her. If I could describe her in three words it would be strong, protective, undefeated.
‘I was concerned for children just like me if the schools closed as part of the national lockdown.
‘Without breakfast club and free school meals, I had very little. What would me and my mum have done?’
The footballer, who was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester for his efforts to combat child poverty, also partnered with the food redistribution charity FareShare at the start of the first lockdown.
The charity takes food that cannot be sold in shops, for example due to packaging errors, and delivers it to thousands of organisations across the UK such as homeless hostels, school breakfast clubs, domestic violence refuges and food banks.
This year Rashford also announced he was teaming up with Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge to offer back-to-basics recipe ideas and culinary tips for low-income families to help tackle food poverty.
Rashford will also be honoured with a special award at the Sports Personality of the Year ceremony on December 20, after the judging panel unanimously agreed his work off the pitch should be commended.
Marcus Rashford has been hailed as the hero of lockdown as his successful free school meals campaign became yet another unlikely victory for a young footballer who has already defied the odds to become one of England’s top sportsmen.
The star says leaving home aged 11 to join Manchester United’s academy when his single mother Melanie struggled to feed the family has driven his campaign to ensure other children in the UK do not go hungry.
The England striker forced Boris Johnson into an extraordinary U-turn less than 24 hours after the Prime Minister refused to budge on finding £110million to give free school meals to 1.3million vulnerable children for six weeks last summer.
Rashford hailed the news, tweeting: ‘I don’t even know what to say. Just look at what we can do when we come together, THIS is England in 2020.’
It capped an incredible lockdown for Marcus, who has recovered from a double back fracture while also helping to supply three million meals for children out of school, raising around £20million along with charity FareShare.
Marcus, who earns £200,000-a-week at Man United and lives in a £1.8million mansion with a fleet of luxury cars, has not said how exactly much he has donated himself but admitted he started the fund with ‘£50,000 to £60,000’ of his own money with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and wealthy individuals handing over millions more.
He grew up in a £150,000 terraced council house on the tough Northern Moor estate in Wythenshawe, an area of Manchester area where the hit series Shameless was filmed, and which has suffered badly from high crime rates, poverty and drug problems.
Marcus has such fond memories of the Manchester home that he has a tattoo of it just below his heart with a compass above it reminding him of where he has come from. There is also a small figure playing football on the green outside, which he would do while others on the estate got into trouble.
And in a moving note written when he was a child, which emerged on Instagram, he said: ‘I only have one dream in life and that is to be a professional footballer. I want to have a different lifestyle and make my family and others proud of me’.
His mother Mel is at the heart of ‘Team Rashford’ and he is also supported by his older brothers Dwaine and Dane, who act as his agents, and his PR executive girlfriend Lucia Loi before they reportedly split in the summer.
He is also close to his two half-sisters including Tamara, a former Miss England contestant, who share the same father, Robert Rashford.
Team Rashford: Marcus after a World Cup match in 2018 with his mother Mel, centre left, brothers Dwaine, far left and Dane, far right, and then-girlfriend Lucia Loi (centre right)
Marcus outside the home he grew up on a tough council estate in Wythenshawe, left, which he has tattooed below his heart to remind him of his roots, right
In a note written when he was 11, around the time he left home to join the Manchester United academy, Marcus wrote about his dream to play professional football and change his and his family’s lives
Marcus, pictured during his primary school years, movingly described how his mother worked to provide for him and his siblings but struggled to put food on the table. Rashford benefited from the free school meals system while growing up, dreaming of football. He is pictured right posing in a Manchester United shirt, the club he has always supporte
His school meals campaign is grounded in his family’s own struggles to put food on the table.
He described being famished as he waited outside the family home until his mother arrived home at 7.30pm to cook the family a meal after working all day at a Ladbrokes bookmakers.
In an emotional piece for the Times’ Red Box he wrote: ‘ My mum would go days without sleeping, worrying about how she would cover the next round of bills, worried that I could get in trouble, mixing with the wrong crowds, if she couldn’t keep her eyes on me while working every hour of the day.
‘Even at seven or eight years old I recognised her worry, but I also recognised that she was trying her best. I’ve said it once and I will say it again: this system was not built for families like mine to succeed, no matter how hard we are working.’
In separate interviews he revealed: ‘My mum was a single parent, she had five kids all living in the same house. The programme that I started at 11 years old (at Manchester United), you’re supposed to start it at 12 years old.
‘It basically gives you accommodation closer to the training facilities and a new school and she worked that hard to push it forward because she knew that was a step I needed to take.
‘I needed to be eating the right food as I was growing, I needed to be close to my team-mates, my new school and my new school friends. She made that decision when I was 11 years old and United allowed it.
‘That was the reason I ended up going at a younger age to the others, it was to help my mum with her situation and also get me out of the situation were were in. So there is always a big element of sacrifice to get to the top level and that’s the one we had to make.’
He added: ‘It’s only now that I really understand the enormous sacrifice my mum made in sending me away to live in digs aged 11, a decision no mother would ever make lightly’.
Marcus has also learned sign language – urging the Government to teach it in schools. Pictured: A property owned by Marcus in Cheshire
Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford arrives at the club’s Carrington training complex
Rashford’s mother Melanie persuaded United to allow him into their academy a year early because she was struggling to feed her five children
His older brother Dwaine (left) has been his agent throughout his career supported by his other brother Dane (right) – pictured together outside the home they grew up in
Marcus Rashford is seen with his then-girlfriend Lucia Loi during the FIFA World Cup in Moscow, Russia in 2018
Ms Loi (middle with Rashford right), who works as a PR executive for a Manchester-based company called Sugar
Marcus has also learned sign language – urging the Government to teach it in schools – supporting a charity celebrating ‘local heroes’, and encouraging children to read on World Book Day.
Rashford and his Old Trafford teammates have also committed to donating at least £1million to NHS hospitals in Manchester by handing over up to 30 per cent of their salaries during the pandemic.
His older brother Dwaine has been his agent throughout his career supported by his other brother Dane, shunning super-agents often used by Premier League stars.
Marcus’ brothers have helped him win a huge new contract with Manchester in 2019 worth £40million over four years plus a £2million contract to be the face of Nike in the UK.
His mother Mel, a devout Christian, has, in her own words, been determined to ‘keep his feet on the ground’ despite her son now earning £10.4million-a-year at Manchester United.
Friends say he is regular visitor to the estate, where his father Robert is believed to live, although has looked after his mother and siblings, buying his mother a £800,000 home three miles from the property they grew up in Wythenshawe.
He lives in a new £1.85million six-bedroom mansion nearby close to other Man United players including best friend Jesse Lingard.
His mum said recently: ‘Of course I’ll be doing my best to help him stay grounded. We are doing a great job as a family to keep his feet on the ground’.
As the coronavirus crisis hit, Marcus Rashford felt obligated to do something to help the young and potentially vulnerable children who may begin to suffer without free school meals
Six-year-old Marcus celebrates winning with Fletcher Moss Rangers before he was picked up by Man United
Marcus is a regular on the estate where he grew up, pictured here playing football outside the property he grew up in
Marcus is understood to have little contact with his father Robert, 55, whose name is not even on his birth certificate, according to The Sun on Sunday.
Robert, believed to be a local football coach himself, has said he would tell his ‘side of the story when the time is right’ – but cousin revealed recently: ‘Robert has only had minimal contact but he blames Mel for keeping him away’.
Earlier this year Rashford was bombarded with racist abuse online after he and fellow England team mates Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho missed the penalty shootouts at the Euro final.
England captain Harry Kane soon sent a powerful social media message to those who sent racist abuse to Saka, Rashford and Sancho which read: ‘Three lads who were brilliant all summer had the courage to step up & take a pen when the stakes were high. They deserve support & backing not the vile racist abuse they’ve had since last night.
‘If you abuse anyone on social media you’re not an England fan and we don’t want you.’
England manager Gareth Southgate said the racist abuse aimed at the players was unacceptable, adding: ‘It’s just not what we stand for. We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together, in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue.
‘We have shown the power our country has when it does come together and has that energy and positivity together. It’s my decision who takes the penalties, it’s not a case of players not volunteering or more experienced players backing out.’
