Biting Back In 2023

19 Dec 2023

It has been an extraordinary and busy year for us. Check out our biggest moments of 2023!

Timi handing over a white box with our FSM petition to a smiling man in uniform with white hair standing in an open doorway with a black door. The door to No.10. Amy a young white girl with red blondish curly hair, Molly a young white girl with straight shoulder length blonde hair and Yumna look o

Ending The School Food Postcode Lottery

We kicked off 2023 by knocking on No. 10 and calling for an extension to Free School Meals, supported by our petition with over 250,000 of your signatures.

In September our campaign was on every back-to-school list, targeting Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan. Thanks to your support we made enough noise to get noticed – stay tuned for more exciting updates in 2024!

Three activists strolling past a bus stop featuring a large advert for a collaboration between Burger King and Doritos displaying a burger, large soft drinks and chicken fries.

We Said We’ve #AdEnough of Junk Food!

In May we released our Enticing, Effective, Everywhere and Red Card for Junk Food reports which revealed how advertising and sponsorships are pushing junk food into the spotlight.

We followed up by launching our #RateMyRidiculous campaign, demanding KP Snacks end their ridiculous sponsorship of The Hundred cricket tournament. We got responses from the ECB and KP Snacks – and no surprise, they’re not willing to change on their own. But don’t worry, this isn’t the last they’ll hear from us!

A group of young people standing in a dimly lit hallway all smiling excitedly, Mia is standing on the far left. She is a white girl with very long brown curly hair, wearing a grey sweatshirt with an orange Bite Back logo on it and a plaid skirt and tights

Biting Back in Our Communities

In February we hit Sheffield City Council with our report “Why does my leisure centre smell like chips?”. They were incredibly impressed and have pledged to work with us.

In May: another win! Tower Hamlets announced a new policy that will take junk food ads out of the spotlight in the area.

And in November, Peterborough took a big bite. Our Community Food Champions took their campaign directly to the council and gained support to end junk food ads!

Our Young Activists Holding a protest sign that says 'We're biting back' and Biting Back At The Food System

Bringing The Youth Power

In March Becky wowed with a speech at the Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit hosted by Sadiq Khan! Just a few months later, Jayda opened the Tony Blair Institute annual conference.

In September we held our first ever Parliamentary drop-in event, and 25(!) MPs turned up to meet with us.

We hit October Party Conferences and Alice’s question to Shadow Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting took off across our socials. Finally, Reuben impressed an audience of 300 decision makers at the Food Active Conference.

Activist Dev, a young brown man with black hair cut into a bowl cut stands in front of a large blue banner with white writing reading Brookvale Groby Learning Campus. He is wearing a dark grey sweater with the word Syracuse in red writing on it with black jeans and has a big proud smile on his face.

Bite Back in Schools

Our Bite Power gets bigger! Over 60 schools join our brand new Bite Back in Schools programme in September 2023.

Since then our Ambassadors, members of our youth board who are 18 and over, have hit schools across the country to welcome over 12,000 young people to the Bite Back movement and get them fired up to make change in their schools. Watch out for more from Bite Back in Schools in 2024.