Food aid: positive prospects for the fight against precariousness

As food insecurity affects more and more people, alternative models of solidarity are developing throughout France. What do they have in common? The participation of the people concerned, the attention to the quality of the products, their local origin, cooperation with other actors in the territories and in particular, farmers. We support many of these innovative structures that have just been supported as part of the recovery plan. These are all positive prospects for universal access to healthy food, respectful of people and ecosystems!

Fight against food insecurity: an issue of social justice

On Europe 1, on September 26, 1985, Coluche launched his little idea which gave birth to the Restos du Cœur “a restaurant whose ambition, at the beginning, would be to distribute two or three thousand covers per day.” Two years later, Europe opened up its surpluses to associations providing food aid via the European Programme for Aid to the Most Deprived (PEAD), which is directly linked to the disposal of agricultural surpluses.

More than 30 years have passed since then.

In 2019, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs threw a spanner in the works in its report “The fight against food insecurity – Evolution of public support for a social, agricultural and public health policy”: “This system is weakened by its extreme complexity of management, uncertainties about its future and the lack of a global vision of national public action on this subject. »

At the end of 2020, 8 million people were in a situation of food insecurity, a figure that would have more than doubled in 10 years! The proportion of women and children is constantly increasing; There are strong links between food insecurity and poverty, not to mention the impact on health and the sense of shame that holds back many people in need.

With more and more people in difficulty, especially students, the health crisis has exploded the statistics of precariousness, putting the spotlight on glaring inequalities in access to quality food. This situation, considered by many citizens to be unacceptable today in France, has led to a surge of solidarity and the development of many new initiatives.

Committed to advancing the cause

Far from being a common good like any other, our food is at the crossroads of multiple (dis)balances. Our food choices, from production to consumption, have an impact on our entire current ecosystem: the loss of biodiversity, global warming but also the reinforcement of inequalities.

Many civil society actors are mobilizing, structuring, imagining and testing new ways of doing things to allow the most fragile among us to benefit from products that are good for our health and for the planet, with so far, mostly private funding. We support them and act to promote universal access to healthy food, respectful of people and ecosystems. We believe in a society that places people and the Earth at the heart of its project, that invites responsibility and attention to others.

For 10 years, we have been working on the issue of precariousness by trying to promote alternatives to conventional models with many local associations that recreate dignity and social ties through food: distribution of fresh products in food deserts (Revivre); links between producers in precarious situations and social and solidarity grocery stores (UniTerre d’Andes); distribution of healthy and local products in the neighbourhoods (Vrac), social and solidarity grocery stores with a mixed audience (Soli’Niort), etc.

Thanks to our expertise in structuring and supporting projects, we work in the service of food solidarity, by facilitating the sharing of experience between actors in social action, sustainable development, agriculture, etc., but also with other foundations and public services, in particular to support the construction of a truly large-scale national policy. It is in this spirit that we joined the National Coordination Committee for the Fight against Food Insecurity (COCOLUPA) at the end of 2020.

We are delighted today to see that the public authorities are taking up these issues of quality food and people’s participation and are strongly committed to innovative players. Thus, as part of the recovery plan, the national call for projects led by the Interministerial Delegation for the Prevention of the Fight against Poverty (DIPLP) and the General Directorate for Social Cohesion (DGCS), has just announced its support of 6 million euros for innovative projects. Other projects at the regional level will be announced in the coming weeks. “There is now an alignment of the planets that is conducive to an in-depth change in the system: political will, financial resources and actors who have been developing alternatives for several years, many of which the foundation has been preparing in recent years to scale up their actions,” says Guilhem Soutou, head of the Sustainable Food Axis.

Focus on some of the winning projects of the support plan for associations fighting poverty, supported by our Foundation

Vrac national : structuring and developing bulk purchasing groups for dignified and sustainable access to quality food in working-class neighbourhoods.

Les petites Cantines : national development of a network of neighbourhood canteens to fight against food and relationship insecurity

Réseau Cocagne : the inclusive economy at the service of good food living

Union des Groupement des Épiceries Sociales et Solidaires : structuring and modernising the network to develop activity for people in precarious situations

Food territories: supported by the Cocagne Network, the Secours Catholique, Vrac, the Ugess and the CIVAM Network.

Focus on Territories to live in

Faced with the social emergency that has become structural, but also in the face of the impoverishment of part of the agricultural world and ecological upheavals, the Territoires à vivreS collective, bringing together 5 major national organizations, is committed to the transformation of emergency food aid in order to ensure more egalitarian access to sustainable, locavore and good quality food.

“The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation put us in touch and brought us together around the table. She noticed that we shared the same values and goals. She was a great facilitator and supported our structuring,” explains Boris Tavernier, Director of Vrac. “I would also like to emphasize that the Foundation is making a strong contribution to the self-financing of the project, which is required by the Recovery Plan.”

From today, between cities and countryside around Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Montpellier and Toulouse, complementarities between associations will be organized to transform the local food system towards more sustainability, better inclusion of all inhabitants, and a democratic dynamic that will allow us to collectively ask ourselves the question of our food and make decisions accordingly. Objectives: to democratize food systems by involving the people concerned and to create with them and agricultural and Social and Solidarity Economy organizations, new economic mechanisms for organic solidarity sectors.

A book to go further: Together to eat better

In an in-depth investigation, Frédéric Denhez and Alexis Jenni went to meet the solidarity organizations that are working to lift millions of people out of food insecurity. Buying groups, cooperatives or shared gardens, solidarity is organized to implement real and effective support and invent new models of production and consumption. Coordinated by Boris Tavernier, from the VRAC network, this book received our support as well as that of Secours Catholique. It is a real gold mine of positive initiatives. To be discovered by Acte Sud editions !