My Name Is Christina

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Christina Adane is committed to improving food choices available to youngsters like her.

Christina Adane believes that more should be done to stop the proliferation of fast food outlets on our streets and that healthier, affordable alternatives should be available.

Seventeen-year-old Christina Adane wants to put a stop to the endless reliance on junk food and to tackle the way young people like her are targeted and trapped by clever marketing aimed specifically at them
 
Christina is a force to be reckoned with: her family’s originally from Ethiopia and it was seeing news reports on the impact of Ebola in Africa which first sparked her political activism. During lockdown she launched the petition for free school meals out of term time – a cause taken up by Marcus Rashford. Now she’s finishing her first year in sixth form and as well as contributing to a podcast with Meghan and Harry, she is seeking to challenge our reliance on fast food.
 
She’s creative with her approach and her recordings give listeners insights into opinions across the spectrum as she speaks to health researchers, chefs, campaigners, teachers, parents and others who want things to change. As she walks down her local high street the proliferation of fast food outlets is striking and so are the numbers of youngsters congregating inside them.

These same youngsters could, she believes, become real force to be reckoned with. As the chair of the youth board of Bite Back 2030 she knows just how effective campaigns can be. In this programme she talks to fellow board member, Barakat Omomayowa about the cyclical way that fast food joints target children and the profits they’re making from this. With nowhere else to congregate, they’re forced to hang out at food joints, and all the more likely to go there if poor quality school meals leave them hungry at the end of the day:

“We need to reimagine our high streets. We need places that are safe and dry, with healthy, affordable, nutritious food instead of more chicken shops and places like McDonalds.” Bite Back 2030 secured a recent victory limiting junk food advertising, but Christina says that’s only part of the solution: 

“It’s a systemic issue that comes from marketing, advertising and environment. As young people we have to battle with all of these things.”

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