“It’s a situation we’ve never known.” While the Restos du Coeur have just launched their 38th winter campaign, the president of the association founded by Coluche, Pierre Douret, expressed his concern in the columns of the Parisian. “With this succession of crises, first health, then economic and climatic, the year promises to be very special,” he said.
The return of inflation in particular could increase the number of people seeking food aid this winter. Last year, between November 15 and December 10, 1.2 million people had already visited one or more of the 8,000 food distribution points, according to an INSEE study published on Tuesday. Adding their household members, the statistics institute estimated between 3.2 and 3.5 million total recipients of in-kind food aid from associations in 2021.
In detail, seven out of ten (71%) frequent parcel distributions, 28% social supermarkets and 12% food distributions. It’s also worth noting that while nine in ten applicants only use one type of distribution (parcels, social groceries, or meal distribution), 30% say they apply for multiple partnerships throughout an entire year.
“Poorest of the Poor”
According to INSEE, “the recipients of food aid are often the poorest of the poor.” The latter report 2.3 times more financial difficulties than the average poor household.
In fact, the beneficiaries with personal accommodation have a standard of living of 637 euros per month on average, “which is little more than a quarter of the average standard of living of households” and “less than three quarters of the level of average life of the poor”. households.” In the end, only 5% of applicants declared income above the poverty line.
Immigrants and people housed in collective accommodation, the first affected
Although they represent 10% of the metropolitan population, immigrants make up 44% of the number of food aid recipients in France. “An underestimated part, since it only includes people capable of answering a questionnaire in French”, specifies the INSEE. Among this population, 90% are from Africa.
The Statistics Institute also points out that the vast majority of food aid users live in ordinary accommodation (86%), either in their personal accommodation or in accommodation where they are hosted by relatives. The rest are housed in collective accommodation (8%), in hotels (2%) or are homeless (4%).
“The housing situation is particularly decisive. In fact, storing raw food products and then cooking them requires having a home,” notes INSEE. Thus, people residing in collective accommodation, in hotels or the homeless resort, respectively, 3.2, 4.3 and 9 times more to the distribution of prepared meals than the beneficiaries who occupy personal accommodation. This attractiveness is also 2.9 times higher among single people than among couple applicants with children.
In total, 84% of food aid beneficiaries receive other aid (social benefits, food vouchers, non-food aid from associations, etc.). On the other hand, applicants staying in hotels or experiencing homelessness are 2.8 to 3.9 times more likely to be part of the 16% receiving no aid other than food aid. Similarly, being an immigrant multiplies this risk by 1.6 to 2.6 compared to nonimmigrant applicants.
Source: BFM TV
