Kamel Kefif Kadhi, one of the founders of the solidarity grocery store with Mey, a 21-year-old student beneficiary.

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E. Martin / ANP / 20 Minutes

  • The Jean-Médecin student residence in Nice has 900 rooms, it is one of the largest in the region.

  • More than 200 students come to collect food baskets.

  • The baskets are free, they include a week's meal which corresponds on average to around fifty euros.

“From the start of the first confinement, we received a lot of calls from students in distress.

One day, there was one who said that he only had one tomato to eat, that was the trigger to act, we could not let him starve ”, remembers Kamel Kefif Kadhi, of the committee. students from the Crous Jean-Médecin residence in Nice.

In one day, with his team of seven, they set up a solidarity grocery store in their residence.

The place, they already had it.

"Five years ago, when the building was renovated, the Crous had planned a room for this kind of initiative but nothing had been done yet", says the second year student of BTS.

Three premises are then requisitioned and authorized to store the products received.

Shelves of pasta, packets of toilet paper, pallets of compotes or bottles of water, but also bins for fruits and vegetables.

He adds: “We didn't buy anything.

We only work through donations and partnerships with associations.

The refrigerators come from Carrefour via the Secours populaire, the shelves of the technical service of the residence Crous.

There are also individuals who offered us ski equipment and chairs ”.

"There are always more students coming"

This administrative situation implies that the grocery store does not make any profit, specifies Kamel Kefif Kadhi.

" Everything is free.

We just organize and be an intermediary to then redistribute.

Our first mission is ultimately to feed struggling students so that they don't think about this stress and concentrate on their lessons ”.

The 900 occupants of the rooms of the Jean-Médecin residence can be beneficiaries, "we help everyone, there are no special conditions", indicates one of the founders of the grocery store.

Currently, more than 200 students come every Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to collect a shopping basket worth around 50 euros in addition to a basket of fruit and vegetables.

“In the profiles, there are many 18-year-olds but also foreign students who do not have the right to state aid and who had income thanks to their work in restaurants, for example.

But it affects all students.

From week to week, there are always more who come ”.

"It clearly changed my life"

Among them, Mey, 21 years old and in third year of license psychology.

“I wasn't there during the first confinement, but when I came back, I had nothing left.

As a foreign student, I don't get a scholarship or anything else, I have to work.

The grocery store clearly allows me to survive, I am very grateful.

"Hamza, resident for three years, is also one of the beneficiaries:" Thanks to this initiative, I get out of precariousness, that is to say, anxiety, stress, knowing that I can spend the month while eating.

It has clearly changed my life ”.

Kamel Kefif Kadhi underlines: “All this is mainly thanks to the solidarity between associations.

They make us hot meals that we redistribute, we also sometimes give surpluses and have in return new products that will better serve everyone's situation.

Not receiving money also helps us to strengthen this human bond.

Here, it has become a small village ”.

As for the question of the motivation to do so, the 21-year-old concludes with a smile: “I have 900 neighbors around me to feed, I don't need a fridge and goodwill, I need a grocery store and give without counting.

"

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  • University

  • Student

  • Society

  • Solidarity

  • Nice