Our Free School Meals campaign crowned 'Best of the Decade'

The Food Foundation's campaign with footballer Marcus Rashford to secure holiday food vouchers for children receiving Free School Meals during the Covid pandemic has been voted Best Campaign of the Decade.

#EndChildFoodPoverty led to the UK Government providing £400 million of funding to support families on low incomes with the cost of food and household bills over a 12-month period.

This benefitted at least 1.7 million children who may have otherwise missed out on Free School Meals or Healthy Start vouchers.

The Food Foundation beat off stiff competition from other major campaigns, including Vote Leave for the UK to exit the European Union, to win the award, which was conferred by communications agency Pagefield.

It convened a panel of opinion leaders from across business, media and the communications industry to select a Top 10 list of the best campaigns of the past 10 years, based on each contender’s legislative, media and cultural impact on UK politics and society. The shortlisted campaigns were then put to a public vote.

The award was presented to our Executive Director Anna Taylor during a ceremony at London's Prince Philip House last night.

The Food Foundation founder Laura Sandys and our Children's Right2Food Campaign Manager Zoe McIntyre, who played a key role in the project, also attended.

Anna Taylor, Executive Director at The Food Foundation, said: "We are delighted to receive this award which shows the issue of food poverty is now firmly on the map, and we are extremely grateful to Marcus Rashford for his hugely successful involvement in the campaign.

"Food poverty is not an issue that has gone away however, and if anything it has got worse.

"The campaign to give all children access to a decent diet has become more urgent than ever and we hope everyone will continue to support it by joining our campaign to write to MPs."

The result of the public vote was revealed alongside the publication of Pagefield's Case for Campaigning report, which contains original research, polling and interviews with a wide range of campaigners, as well as exclusive public polling which reveals that 54% of the public think campaigning is a positive force in society.