Parents in the 19th arrondissement have launched a petition to demand fresher meals in the canteen.
Little Parisians and little Parisiennes are not all housed in the same boat, depending on where they live.
The children of the 5th arrondissement, for example, all have the right to meals prepared in the kitchens on site, while those of the 20th only eat dishes in "cold connection", prepared several days before.
Laetitia Pasquet is the mother of two children, 10 and 6 years old, educated at the elementary school Bolivar, in the 19th arrondissement, in Paris.
But since her second daughter changed schools, this mother, also elected to the school council for the FCPE, has heard the same little refrain about the meals prepared in the canteen: "Mom, it's not Well !
“After having raised the subject several times in the school council, and learning not only that the meals are not prepared on site, but also that the situation is very widely shared in the 19th, Laetitia Pasquet decided to launch a petition” for fresh, high-quality cuisine in the canteen", signed for the moment by just over 330 people.
“For several years, the children of the Bolivar elementary school have been complaining about the quality of the meals served in the canteen.
They are not always served hot enough, lack taste, are unappetizing.
Even greedy children tend to lose pleasure in having lunch at school”, deplores this text, which points to the method of preparation and a form of territorial inequality.
"The meals are kept for two or three days in the refrigerators of the central kitchen before being delivered and served" or "in the 10th arrondissement, all the children eat products cooked the same day every day".
The petition calls on the town hall of the 19th arrondissement to create "an on-site preparation kitchen for all schools where it is architecturally possible".
In the North-East, children mainly eat reheated
In fact, little Parisians and little Parisians are not all housed in the same boat, depending on where they live.
According to the report on school catering in Paris in 2021, which
20 Minutes
obtained, children in the 5th arrondissement, for example, all have the right to meals prepared in on-site kitchens, while those in the 20th only eat dishes in “cold connection”, prepared several days before [between three and five days according to several sources], kept cold under vacuum, delivered to schools and then reheated.
On this aspect, the poorest districts, in the North-East of Paris, are clearly the worst off.
In the 18th, for example, there is only one kitchen on site, and 78 “satellites” which serve cold dishes.
The 19th has 15 kitchens on site and 16 satellites which prepare dishes in the morning which are then served within two hours in the schools (a system known as “hot connection”), but also 36 satellites which serve cold.
On the contrary, besides the 5th arrondissement, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th or 17th arrondissements only have dishes prepared the same morning.
“I find it shocking.
We pay the same thing so the quality should be the same from one district to another!
“, protests Laetitia Pasquet.
A question of money
On the Paris City Hall side, Audrey Pulvar, in charge of sustainable food, ensures that the situation is not linked to a "particular neglect": "It's just that there are a lot of meals to prepare in these districts. .
But even in the cold chain, the contents of the trays are of good quality: in the 19th, there is 60% organic or sustainable.
There are richer neighborhoods that are far below, with 20 to 25% organic.
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But the assistant also recognizes that the absence or the low proportion of meals made the same day in the North-East also has financial reasons: “It is certain that in districts where parents have more means and pay 7 euros per meal, the coffers [of the schools] are richer than in the districts where the parents pay 13 centimes per meal.
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The "meaning of history"
The town hall has deployed a plan to increase the share of meals prepared the same day, but calls for a little patience while the amounts to recreate kitchens on site are "astronomical", estimated at several million, according to Audrey Pulvar.
“We know that fresh produce is better.
The meaning of history is the dishes prepared on site, but there are constraints.
The 10th is the result of a construction that took several years, ”says the cabinet of Patrick Bloche, assistant for education.
“At the start of the 2021 school year, the number of traditional kitchens [integrated into schools, with meals prepared on site] increased from 12 to 15, and 8 additional schools are served by these kitchens.
This deployment of traditional kitchens will continue at this rate throughout the term of office, ”also says the town hall of the 19th.
An environmental and health problem
If for the ecologists at the Council of Paris the trajectory is good, it is however too slow.
“We want us to move faster on decentralization to cook on a human scale and on site”, affirms to
20 Minutes
Alice Timsit, elected in the 19th for the group Les Ecologistes.
“It's a question of equality between the districts.
And for the agents, it's also a way to find meaning,” she adds.
Especially since the manufacture of meals also poses a health and environmental problem, according to Alice Timsit, the dishes being reheated in trays covered with a thin layer of plastic.
“It releases plastic into the food, albeit in tiny amounts, but it's not good.
And this poses a concern for waste reduction.
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At the Bolivar school, the creation of an on-site kitchen is in any case not on the agenda.
Laetitia Pasquet claims to have offered this project to the management, who refused it.
“The director told us last week that it was unfeasible, that there was no budget.
Students will need to be patient and patient.
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Paris city hall
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audrey pulvar