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

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.

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.

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’.

“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.

“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.