South Yorkshire shop owner offers free half term sandwiches to youngsters on free school meals

Connor Cartwright, who owns The Sandwich Shop in Woodhouse Green in Thurcroft has offered children on free school meals a free sandwich and piece of fruit if they go to the shop during half term this week.

Following last Wednesday's vote in parliament to not extend free school meals during school holidays, Mr Cartwright decided to help.

When Manchester United player Marcus Rashford started a campaign for free school meals during the holidays, the government offered free meals to disadvantaged children throughout the summer break.

Despite pressure to extend the scheme, the motion was voted down on Wednesday.

Mr Cartwright said: "I don't know the fundamentals of it. I'm assuming they have the reasons for why they voted against it but I don't think there's a good enough reason to not feed kids."

He had the idea to give out free meals when he saw on Twitter that a chip shop in Liverpool was offering free meals to children during the half-term break.

"A week when it's quiet, we can waste quite a bit of food sometimes, no better time to give away what we might waste anyway, so I thought I'd offer [the meals] out on my local Facebook forum and go from there."

After Mr Cartwright posted the offer to Facebook, it was Tweeted by Marcus Rashford, who has compiled places offering free food up and down the country.

His Tweet about the Sandwich Shop has been retweeted 1,300 times, and liked more than 10,000 times.

Mr Cartwright said it was "unreal" that his offer was picked up by the young footballer, and his offer has encouraged others to help out.

"We've had loads of people offering help. The community has been brilliant - I came in this morning to some money in an envelope that had been posted.

"I'm trying to get the message out to normalise people asking for help. Everyone falls on hard times but people can be too proud to ask for help.

"It's the perfect time for them to accept it and to maybe ask for help. I'm happy to help and there's no shame, we can all fall on hard times," he added.

Parents or carers that would like a sandwich and fruit for their child should visit The Sandwich Shop, 16 Woodhouse Green, S66 9AQ.

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