Sustainable food for all: mobilizing to eat better. – EquiTABLE

The Sustainable Development Goals (Objectifs de Développement Durable - ODD) point the way to a better and to a more sustainable future for all, highlighting the challenges to be met, among which the fight against poverty, food inequality and environmental degradation feature prominently. The transition to more sustainable food systems implies a change in consumption habits, in favor of a more plant-based and environmentally-friendly diet. However, access to healthy, sustainable food largely depends on the economic status of people, and this raises a number of challenges especillay in the recent context of the exceptional rise in the price of everyday consumer goods, which is making more and more households vulnerable.
Numerous initiatives (workshops, targeted food vouchers, etc.) have been put in place to encourage healthier, more sustainable eating habits for the most precarious eaters, but these initiatives have not always met with the success and acceptance expected by the structures behind them. However, recent studies (Verdeau and Monnery-Patris, 2024) have shown that people in precarious situations are sensitive to the “sustainability” of their food, and that they value sustainable practices (such as promoting anti-waste food), but without making their approach conscious or explicit, their behavior being guided more explicitly by economic than sustainable motivations. As a result, people in precarious situations perceive themselves as “non-legitimate”, powerless or even excluded from the question of food transition.
So how can we mobilize all eaters in the food transition and stimulate their power to act? The present project is the result of cross-fertilization between people involved in solidarity food and researchers committed to understanding the determinants of the behaviors of eaters, particularly those on the margins of society. More specifically, this project aims to 1/ co-construct creative, citizen-based and innovative devices for mobilizing and raising awareness of sustainable food issues among the greatest possible number of people, in an inclusive, non-normative and interactive way, 2/ evaluate what works during a pilot project in a social and solidarity grocery store (Epicerie Sociale et Solidaire) where food choices and behaviors will be measured, in order to 3/ ultimately propose tangible and substantiated levers for including all eaters in the food transition.