How Unity Transforms Challenges into Success, with Andy Puddicombe

(mouse clicking) (soft music) Headspace Studios. Hi, it's Andy here, and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Friday morning. And given it's the end of the week, I wanted to finish on something sort of positive. And there's a story going on in the UK at the moment involving an incredible young footballer called Marcus Rashford. Black Stays down, Marchus Rashford! Three nil for Manchester United! They are running riots here now at Old Trafford. Who is really championing and pioneering the drive to ensure that school children get fed no matter what time of year, whether it's during term time, whether it's during the holiday time, and the children in poverty can actually have access to food. What's often not sort of known is that many children, the only time that they actually get quality food, sometimes food at all, is at school. And there's a whole system whereby you get sort of free school meals. If your parents sort of qualify, you go into school, you'll get free school meals. And growing up myself, I got free school meals. My parents qualified, they didn't have money. My dad was out of work a lot. And I remember as a kid feeling both grateful on the one hand but embarrassed too that we couldn't as a family, afford food, but at the same time, really grateful. We definitely weren't in the category of if I went home, I wasn't gonna get fed. We would find food, of course, but there are some children in some families who simply can't find that food. And anyway, the government made the decision. This isn't about politics, but the government made the decision that children wouldn't get the food during the school holidays, and they have done in the past, especially during COVID. So this footballer, Marcus Rashford, essentially started this campaign and it happened quite organically. I'm not sure he had in mind this at the beginning, but he's literally sort of rallied the entire nation, like everybody's got behind him. And it's not just individuals, it's food companies, it's restaurants. There are pictures of cafes and restaurants and pubs with sort of, maybe not pubs, because you don't want kids to go into pubs, but there are signs outside their doors saying hey, on this day we are gonna offer you free meals. I can't remember how many tens or hundreds of millions of meals that have been put out right now, but it's an incredible number. And look, there's all kinds of debates as to whether this should be the population driving this or whether it should be the government driving this through taxes that are paid and everything else. Again, it's not about that. This particular message is about how people can come together and make a difference, how we can all make a difference. It's so easy to sit back and feel powerless in a situation as individuals, as communities, as a nation. And it's such an amazing example...