WHAT GUIDES US
Our Core 7 Values
At Biting Back, our work is guided by seven core values: nonjudgmental, inclusivity, accountability, unity, equity, kindness, and supportive. These principles shape every aspect of our organization: from how we welcome and collaborate with our members to how we educate, advocate, and serve our communities.
Our core values are more than words; they are the foundation of the culture we strive to build and the impact we hope to create. By holding ourselves accountable to these values, we foster a community where everyone feels respected, empowered, and encouraged to make meaningful change. They remind us to lead with compassion, promote equitable access to nutrition, and work together toward a healthier future for all.
See below for more on the significance of each value to Biting Back.
Equity
Equity is at the heart of Biting Back's mission. We recognize that everyone has different circumstances and needs, so we strive to ensure every individual has fair access to the knowledge, resources, and opportunities they need to thrive. We believe promoting equity is essential to creating lasting change.
Nonjudgemental
At Biting Back, we recognize that every individual comes from a unique background and has different life experiences. No matter your story, you will be welcomed without judgment. We strive to create a safe, respectful environment where everyone feels comfortable participating and sharing at their own pace.
Inclusivity
Everyone is welcome at Biting Back, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or background. We believe our diverse perspectives make our community stronger, and we are committed to fostering a culture of belonging, respect, and inclusion. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind.
Accountability
Trust and integrity are built through accountability. We expect both our members and our team to take responsibility for their words and actions, learn from mistakes, and treat others with respect. Accountability encourages growth, strengthens relationships, and helps create a positive community.
Unity
We are stronger together. Biting Back is built on the belief that meaningful change happens when people work together toward a shared goal. By supporting one another and embracing teamwork, we create a community rooted in compassion, resilience, and collective impact.
Kindness
Kindness guides everything we do. We treat every person with compassion, empathy, and respect, creating an environment where everyone feels valued and supported. Bullying, harassment, and disrespectful behavior have no place in our community.
Supportive
At Biting Back, we lift one another up. Everyone joins our community with different experiences and levels of nutrition knowledge, and we believe every person deserves encouragement, not judgment. We are committed to supporting one another, especially those who have been affected by food insecurity, food injustice, or other challenges related to the topics we discuss.
The Story Behind Biting Back
Why I Started Biting Back
My name is Skyler Sheresky and I am the founder of Biting Back: this is my story.
While recovering from an eating disorder I had to rewire my brain to not think of food from a caloric perspective but how food can serve my body to make me feel like my best self. Therefore, I started to lean into the nutrition aspect of food. Upon learning about the fundamentals of nutrition, I quickly realized how little I actually knew.
As I started to learn more about nutrition, I saw similar gaps of knowledge among people around me and online. Questioning this large education gap, I decided to look into the California school laws about the requirement for nutrition education and I learned that though there are some laws mandating K-12 nutrition education, the laws and content are too thin and inadequate. Reflecting on my own nutrition lessons in elementary and middle school, most of what I was taught was what everyone knows: eat healthy and balanced (what does that look like or even mean?), eat vegetables (how many, why, which ones?), and don’t have too much sugar (how much can I have and beyond cavities, why?).
All of this inspired me to create Biting Back which is centered around fighting this lack of education around nutrition. While researching for Biting Back, I saw another issue: food injustice. Even if people learn about nutrition many individuals cannot access healthy foods for cost or location reasons. It is unacceptable that any person has to sacrifice eating healthy for other basic necessities when healthy food is one of the most basic necessities. I hope Biting Back empowers other teenagers my age to develop a healthier, more balanced perspective on nutrition, challenge harmful diet culture, and better understand the inequities that shape access to healthy food in order to give everyone an equal playing field to flourish and maximize life.
“Food injustice and the lack of education around food are directly connected and together create a vicious cycle. How we eat affects the way we think, function, exercise, move, sleep, and our short-term as well as long-term health. With Biting Back, I want to stop this cycle by providing other teenagers with knowledge centered around how to eat healthy and also support access to nourishing foods for people who would otherwise be unable to, allowing teenagers to build healthy eating habits early on.”
- Skyler Sheresky, Founder & Executive Director