Arthur Pereira (on site), edited by Laura Laplaud 11:43 a.m., June 10, 2022

If you have children, the addition may be more salty from the next school year.

School canteens are not immune to inflation.

Between the rise in energy prices, and those of raw materials linked to the war in Ukraine, the increases are already being felt for certain municipalities, such as in Indre-et-Loire.

Six million children eat lunch there every day.

The school canteen is not immune to inflation either.

Plus 10 to 30% on the bill, depending on the municipality.

What put elected officials in a dilemma: make families pay or cut back on the municipal budget.

26 cents extra per meal

In this school near Tours, in Indre-et-Loire, you can, for example, eat melon, Bolognese pasta, a piece of cheese and yogurt.

145 children from Saint-Étienne-de-Chigny, a town of 1,600 inhabitants, have lunch there every day.

But since June 1, each of these meals costs 26 cents more.

An increase supported by the town hall until the end of the year, but from September everything will change.

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The rest will have to be paid by the parents.

"It has an impact on everyday life. Afterwards, it's not violent, but yes, it's felt. It's not just the canteen, it's all of life that increases in general, if the canteen gets involved, in addition, it will become complicated", regrets Jessica, mother of two little girls. 

"We will be more careful and at the same time we may be forced to suppress a pleasure," she says.

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30 meters from the refectory, in his office, Mayor Régis Salic, does the accounts.

"We have increases in the price of beef by 15%, pork by 7%, poultry by 15 to 20%...", he lists.

A set of additional costs reflected directly in the price of the meals.

"If you have three children, it immediately makes 15-16 euros, over a school year it represents 160 euros", he explains.

The elected official justifies this increase by the current context with the war in Ukraine and the avian flu which affects part of France.

For the mayor, a further increase is even possible from next year.