Professional and associative career
Coming from a working-class family in Nord-Pas-de-Calais,Boris Tavernier has lived in Lyon since the early 2000s. [1] He is involved in the social and solidarity economy and food. In 2004,he co-founded "De l'autre côtédu pont",a bar-restaurant and performance hall in Scop,where he is in charge of the kitchen and cultural programming.
He is the holder of a Master's degree in social and solidarity economy from the University of Lyon 2,he co-founded in 2013 with Marc Uhry and Cedric Van Styvendael "VRAC" (Towards a joint purchasing network),an association fighting against food insecurity,whose first purchasing group was created in La Duchère [ fr ]. [2] The mission of the association is to allow residents of working-class neighborhoods with limited incomes to access a chosen and unconstrained food supply,thanks to the sale of products at differentiated pricing. [3] The VRAC association is authorized to provide food aid and is present in several dozen cities in France. [4]
With this association,he organizes cooking competitions in various neighbourhoods, [5] several educational projects around food, [6] and initiated and supervised the project "Women from here,Cuisine from elsewhere", [7] a book of investigation and stories on the cooking of women from immigrant backgrounds,published by Albin Michel and written by Alexis Jenni,winner of the 2011 Goncourt Prize. In 2019,he initiated and coordinated the project "Remains of Childhood",a collection of culinary-literary texts. In 2021,he directed the project "Together for better food", [8] co-written by Alexis Jenni and Frédéric Denhez,an investigation into solidarity and sustainable projects to escape food insecurity. The same year,Boris Tavernier became an Ashoka fellow,a title that recognizes pioneers of social entrepreneurship.
His expertise in the fight against food insecurity allows him to participate in the work of the National Coordination Committee for the Fight Against Food Insecurity (Cocolupa) and in that of the National Food Programme (PNA). He also appears on France Inter to raise awareness of food issues,notably in the programs "On va déguster" [9] and "La Terre au carré". [10]
He advocates for healthier,fairer and more sustainable food,and for the generalization of social security systems for food social security. [11]
