Our About Us page shares the story behind Biting Back—why we started, what drives us, and the values that guide our work. Here, visitors can understand not just what we do in nutrition, but why it matters so deeply to us and why we are committed to advocating for social and political change.
Our Core 7 Values
Our core 7 values at Biting Back are nonjudgemental, inclusive, accountable, unity, equitable, kind, and supportive. These 7 core values represent how we treat our Biting Back members as well as the values that we use to lead in promoting change. Having a strong set of core values is extremely important to Biting Back because it keeps us in check to ensure we are promoting and cultivating the kind of community and change we want.
For more information about each value please read about each value and its significance to Biting Back below.
Inclusive
People of all genders, religions, races, sexualities backgrounds, socio-economic status', ethnicities, or anything else are welcomed and loved at Biting Back. Biting Back promotes inclusivity, understanding that we all have our own unique experiences as well as identities and that only creates a stronger and more represented community. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.
Accountability
At Biting Back, we lead with kindness. Kindness helps foster relationships and a healthy-happy environment. Kindness is the foundation of our community. We hope and expect that every person comes to Biting Back with the intention of being kind and respectful. We do not tolerate any forms of bullying or disrespect.
Supportive
Biting Back members uplift and empower one another! We are all in this together and by supporting one another we create a community filled with love and healthy relationships. Every person at Biting Back will come to workshops with different levels of knowledge about nutrition and we will not tear someone down because of this, instead we will support every person based on where they are coming from. It is very important that we support one another especially understanding that a lot of Biting Back members are or have been directly affected by food injustice or other topics we cover.
Accountability
An essential part of creating a community filled with trust and integrity is having a policy of accountability. Accountability comes from both community members and the Biting Back team. When unexpected conflicts or situations arise, we expect everyone to hold themselves accountable for their actions and possible consequences. Accountability also facilitates understanding and supports personal as well community growth.
Nonjudgmental
At Biting Back we understand that our community comes from all different kinds of backgrounds and experiences. Regardless of your background or your experiences, we do not judge you. We promote an open community where we hope everyone feels safe sharing whatever they feel comfortable disclosing and being nonjudgemental is crucial to ensuring that we create this kind of community.
Unity
We are stronger together! Biting Back’s mission does not center around one person or one experience but our tight-knit community as a whole. Our togetherness and unity fosters progress, strength, love, and resilience.
Equitable
Equitability is the number one core value of Biting Back because our mission is to promote fairness and equal opportunity. Particularly, we understand different circumstances need to be treated differently and therefore we adjust our approach based on the specific circumstance. Equitability boosts equality, fairness, and proportionality in our community.
Skyler Sheresky
Founder & Leader of Biting Back
For direct concerns email Skylersheresky@gmail.com
Why I Started Biting Back
While recovering from anorexia 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 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 is 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. 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. Through this, I hope to give everyone an equal playing field to flourish and maximize life.