To make healthy food sexy, go where the young people are

I started campaigning against our broken food system when I was 15 years old. I stopped campaigning when I was nearing my 19th birthday. Not because I lost faith, but because I felt like there was something missing from the discourse around food systems in the UK.

I began a different journey exploring youth culture – making magazines and interviewing dozens of people on music, fashion, art and food. In taking this time away, I’ve come to realise ways in which we can help redesign our food system using mediums of youth culture as a theory of change.

Now, I don’t need to make the case for why we should feed young people well: that is obvious. We know what we need to do legislatively, even if it isn’t being done yet. But say our new government does all the right things, we’d still be losing the cultural war on food.

I say that because we don’t fully appreciate how entrenched big food companies have become in young people’s environments. I’m not just talking about our high streets or screens, I’m specifically referring to our social and creative spaces.

Junk food companies have amassed immense amounts of cultural capital amongst young people because they’ve positioned themselves as incubators for emerging subcultures. If I go to a show in London, there’s a high chance it will be sponsored by Red Bull. If I go to a party, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll be serving free Wingstop.

The absence of economic infrastructure for the arts has created a space for junk food companies to swoop in and become the heroes of culture, providing young people with the money and space to make their ideas come to life.

This has created an almost indestructible sense of loyalty from young people to these junk food companies, as they are the only sector or business (other than alcohol) that see and nurture the potential of youth culture. This leads to any top-down change becoming demonised; it will be seen as ‘anti-youth’ to go against these junk food brands that do so much for young people.

My peers are constantly sending pitch decks to these fast food companies asking for budget to throw mixers, panel talks, or concerts. In order for youth and junk food to no longer be synonymous, we must disrupt this demand and redirect it to ethical food businesses, and help create alternative frameworks for youth culture through nutritious food. By doing this, we not only debunk the narrative that fast food is inherent to youth culture, but we show that healthy food isn’t just for the upper echelons of society: it’s for everyone.

I understand that giving money away isn’t necessarily viable for small businesses. But a lot of this is also about space; young people literally have to hire spaces in order to hang out in cities. If a business owner could open up their restaurant or café once a month to a creative collective, you have no idea the impact it would have, and the mindset shift it would trigger amongst young people. As a generation that grew up with the chicken shop as our social space after school, the invitation to participate in a wider food environment is invaluable.

Nurturing the next generation is as much about community as it is food. Food business owners should open their doors to young people and support our creative communities. As long as junk food has a monopoly on youth culture, our collective dream of a more attractive, accessible food system will be out of reach.