THREE CHEERS for Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford who turned 23 on Saturday. It's nice to have someone decent to champion instead of the entitled idiots running the horror show at Westminster.

So, the talk has been of childhood poverty, and just how shocking it is in 21st century Britain. This was prompted by Tory MPs rejecting Labour's motion to extend free school meals during school holidays (after swallowing their taxpayer-subsidised lunch). One or two spectacularly ill-judged and illuminating justifications were given along the lines of: the proles need to learn to parent their children properly (instead of spending their benefits on TVs, ciggies and their Netflix subscription – is that the inference?).

Few issues can be more emotive than that of hungry children. It is the titanic match of Marcus the Messiah versus Boris the Bad. Awarded an MBE last month for his work to end child food poverty, Rashford understands. He grew up in poverty. Johnson grew up in the corridors of Eton.

The streets of England are not lined with millions of starving children. But there is significant poverty amid wealth. There are hungry children in Britain. There are genuinely poor and struggling families. Rashford, inconveniently for Johnson, has simply shone a rather dazzling light on it.

Food insecurity is "a substantial problem... with sizeable portions of residents in many affluent countries struggling to eat healthily every day". This is stated in a May 2020 review by Oklahoma State and Northumbria universities, entitled Food Insecurity in Advanced Capitalist Nations. Economic inequality and poverty, together with neoliberal capitalist policy and diminished government responsibility, the authors argue, are the critical causes of food insecurity.

The state is obligated under UN law to provide adequate nutritious food and material assistance for children in cases of need, and Universal Credit doesn't mean well-fed children. So what do you do when your government fails to look after its citizens? You can rise up, strike and riot. You can have an ugly revolution. Or you can care, share, create your own networks and communities, and provide the support the Government won't.

It has been heartening to witness this across England this week. The astonishing strength and swift efficiency of which civil society is capable is a balm in troubled times. Hot meals and packed lunches have been handed out at pubs and cafes. Food boxes have been delivered to doors, with caring faces and kind words. Dozens of businesses – many of them small independents – have stood up and said: we'll provide free school meals for hungry children if the Government won't.

A boxing club in Chorley. A greengrocer in Oxfordshire. An arts co-operative in Wigan. A gaming studio in Warwick. Cafes, pubs, bakeries, farm shops, football clubs, rugby clubs, charities, teachers – businesses, community groups and individuals up and down England have rallied to hand in donations, drive and do meal drops.

Rashford has called these legions of community angels "the real pride of Britain". Perhaps there is an element of exaggerated righteousness in stories of cash-strapped businesses heroically saving the hungry masses where the callous Government won't. But while feeding a child for a week won't solve the long-term problem of poverty and inequality, the fact it demonstrates we're a caring society is the most valuable thing it does. When we can't rely on our government, we don't just give up and despair; we lean on each other.

That's not to say we should sit back and accept a government that dodges its duties. Food insecurity will remain a substantial problem as long as we continue to elect neoliberal elites – that is the conclusion of the Oklahoma and Northumbria authors. The solution? To vote in progressive politicians, to lobby, to mount legal challenges, and to rise up and feed people in the meantime.

Long term, the solution is political. Short term, we step up, bolstered by this groundswell of goodwill. It is the human state, showing its vast compassion. It is neighbours and workmates looking out for one another. It is communities pulling together. It is the generosity of strangers. Westminster has a lot of work to do to create a social security system based on dignity and compassion. For now though, let's cheer on the good folk in the cafes and pubs. At least in Scotland, the system is more supportive.

Sometimes it takes the people to show the authorities how to run a country. It is in these spaces – these cracks – that beautiful things can happen. Civil society is being human; it's caring and rallying and expressing all those elements of a social species. There are aspects to celebrate in that. Where government fails us, seeds of community can germinate. In a sweet reversal, the people are showing the Government how to do things.

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