One of the dishes served by the Miam Collectif -

Miam Collectif

  • In Perpignan, the Miam Collectif offers vegetarian menus made from unsold fruit and vegetables collected from organic stores.

  • During the epidemic, this rather particular restaurant is only open to people in a precarious situation, but others can take take-out.

  • In this restaurant, the price is free: we leave what we can.

At 22, place Rigaud, in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), things get busy in the kitchen.

For a year now, the Miam Collectif has been offering vegetarian and organic meals at noon, simmered from, in particular, unsold products.

Spinach soup with yogurt, turnip tagine, roasted cauliflower in red butter, mushrooms stuffed with pumpkin or Italian chard ... In this room, halfway between the working-class neighborhoods and the city center, we serve gourmet and refined cuisine.

“Everything was delicious!

Says Sandy, one of the many customers to leave cheerful comments on Facebook.

In recent months, due to health measures linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, the structure, which employs three part-time employees, supported by dozens of volunteers, has only been authorized to serve on site people in precarious situations.

The others can always, however, take away meals.

A free price

But usually, the Miam Collectif functions like a traditional restaurant, and everyone can sit down there.

"The principle is the free price," says Camille, one of the cooks employed by the Miam Collectif.

From the moment you have paid your membership, which is 5 euros per year, you pay for meals according to what you can, or want, to put.

However, we offer an equilibrium price, with which we remunerate ourselves, we pay for the premises, etc.

It's 7 euros, for a starter, a main course and a dessert.

"For those who are facing major difficulties, the collective Yum however has a few" suspended meals "," prepaid thanks to what all the others put in the cash ", continues the Perpignan cook.

To simmer its meals, the association, which began with a traveling canteen in festivals, collects each week around a hundred kilos of unsold fruit and vegetables from a Bio Coop store, and from a producers 'store, O' Near.

"These are fruits and vegetables taken off the shelves, because there are new arrivals, sometimes a little stained, not calibrated ... But these are goods in very good condition", continues the representative of the collective.

The structure also purchases from wholesalers and grocery stores to complete its menus.

An operation which forces the cooks of the association to “improvise”, almost from day to day, depending on the arrivals.

The Miam Collectif project is supported by the Department of Pyrénées-Orientales, the State, and recently received a boost from the Occitanie region, after a citizen vote.

"That it comes from the citizens is very important for us", continues Camille.

The collective, affected by the crisis, has also launched an online pot.

So that this solidarity (and culinary) adventure continues.

Society

Lyon: The town hall is experimenting with solidarity breakfasts in kindergartens

Toulouse

Confinement in Toulouse: From chefs to the stoves for the homeless, here is the amazing (and lasting) adventure of the Belles gamelles

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Cooked

  • Solidarity

  • Vegetarianism

  • Perpignan

  • Society