This is one of the consequences of the containment decided to fight against the coronavirus epidemic: the food divide between the French is growing day by day. Some parents in precarious situations can no longer cope with food expenses which increase mechanically with the time spent at home. To reduce the precariousness of the confined popular categories, associations are mobilizing.
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This is particularly the case in Marseille, a city crossed by many social divisions. "We have a great impoverishment in my college, with a lot of single-parent families in a situation of great poverty", explains to the microphone of Europe 1 Véronique Michaud, professor of French at the college Vieux-Port.
"We will soon have more to eat"
The teacher collected 2,600 euros to fight against the precariousness of the families of her establishment, which she discovered at random by making phone calls to the parents. "Families say that it is a hassle, that they will soon have no more to eat. It was the sentence: 'We will soon have more to eat'," she insists. "For me, it was a shock. Either we give money, or we go shopping, such as baby diapers, which cost a fortune."
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"France has 9 million poor people who have not disappeared with confinement," recalls Thierry Robert, director general of Secours populaire. "For these people, the situation is even more dramatic. For families who have children at home who must be fed, there are no more canteens, for prices which sometimes increase."
In Marseille, more than 15,700 families benefit from total or partial free canteen, for example. "It is extremely worrying, the longer the confinement lasts, the more it is financially problematic," warns Virginie Akliouat, of the teacher union SNUipp. "Several pots have been created on the platforms. In some places, it is the donation of foodstuffs which prevails. To my knowledge, I have more than a dozen places where it is the case."
New precarious
In the city of Marseilles, "we have nine emergency branches and the number of people we help has doubled," said the director general of Secours populaire. "In a branch, 20 new people a day come to ask the Secours populaire for help." Faced with this situation, the town hall will offer financial compensation which will be paid to families by the family allowance funds.
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But that will not be all, because the number of people in need has increased with the crisis. "The self-employed, temporary workers and isolated people who until then did not need the activity of an association like ours come knocking on our doors", affirms Thierry Robert.
Logical consequence: "The financial situation is estimated at 10 million euros of lack of means, either of losses, or of additional needs for new expenses", deplores the director general of the charitable association. "We estimated at 3 million euros the amount of revenue in our collections less per month during this confinement period."