Beth Moncel
Founder of Budget Bytes
“I’m a food lover, number cruncher, and meticulous budgeter. I love science and art, and the way they come together when I cook. I love to create, problem solve, and learn new things. Making great food is my passion, my purpose, and my favorite thing to share with others.”
Describe yourself in 1 to 2 sentences?
I have a creative heart with an entrepreneurial drive, and the never-ending desire to learn something new. Helping others and watching people grow and succeed gives me great joy. Luckily, I’ve found a career, food blogging, that allows me to experience all of these things on a daily basis.
Why are you passionate about anti-racism & equity?
As humans living in a society, I believe it is our duty to look out and care for one another with the same love and respect that we’d show ourselves. While that’s easy enough to do that on a personal one-on-one basis, I’ve recently realized that this is simply not enough. Believing that racism is harmful won’t change the system of oppression we live in. We need to continually act on that belief and work to change the system and our societal norms. There is just so much needless suffering, so much lost talent, so much potential never realized because of the inequalities caused by racism. We are holding our society back as a whole when we hold back or oppress groups of people within it. I strongly believe that it is my duty to use my success and privilege to help change the system to allow others to also achieve success and happiness.
What’s one thing you’d like to see in the food & wellness industry when it comes to equity?
I hope that the diversity and inclusion that we saw sparked over the summer becomes the norm. I was blown away by the sheer amount of amazing talent I was overlooking before I diversified my social media feeds. There are so many creators out there who deserve to be seen and heard instead of being overlooked just because they don’t fit the cookie-cutter white American image. And hopefully, increased diversity, inclusion, and equal representation will begin to reduce the harmful implicit biases that the media often creates.
Why did you want to support the Collective and its work?
Being a business owner, especially in the online space, can be very isolating. Having a collective of like-minded colleagues to connect with, learn with, and support while working toward a common goal is absolutely invaluable. Having the Food and Wellness Equity Collective actively engaging its members will keep this topic at the forefront when we grow our businesses and create our future. The amount of knowledge, inspiration, and motivation I got during the first online summit was so incredible that I wanted to make sure this resource would continue not only for myself, but for others. I can’t wait to see what the collective accomplishes over the next year!
