More and more mouths to feed. This is the sad observation made by the Pas-de-Calais Food Bank since the start of the coronavirus crisis. The association, which fights against precariousness, is now helping an additional 4,000 people, bringing the total to 37,000.
>> Watch Bernard Poirette's morning show in replay and podcast here
"During the health crisis, I was fired," says for example Sophie, who fills her shopping cart during a distribution of Dynamique, one of the 125 partner structures of the Food Bank in the mining basin. "I lost my job, I was cleaning college to replace it and I had to stop working because of confinement ..."
"Workers, single-parent families ..."
Preserves, yogurts, fruits and vegetables: this new beneficiary now comes twice a week. "A lot of people we didn't know come to us for help," notes Isabelle, head of the association. "Workers, single-parent families ... A lot of temporary workers especially. They really find themselves in misery. It will not get any better by going unfortunately."
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the situation on Saturday
At the Food Bank which supplies food to associations, stocks are dwindling. "We do everything to avoid rationing, to reduce the quantities," says President Christian Condette. "Food aid does not allow a person to live, already."
The concern is also focused on the European aid fund: it ends this year and represents 20% of food for the Pas-de-Calais food bank.