With the continuous increase in prices, associations are alarmed by the number of young men and women who find it difficult to eat, once rent and paid studies.
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This Tuesday evening, around fifty people wait in front of the common bar, an associative place in the popular district of La Goutte d’Or, in Paris. Like every week, the Linkee association performs a free distribution of products, mainly food, intended for students.
Dressed in yellow or blue t-shirts, volunteers, often students themselves, are busy directing young people towards collected products. Midou, 20, leaves with a whole cart. Arrived from Morocco two years ago, this computer student in a private school lives with 500 euros per month. Once he paid his rent, he no longer has much money to eat. “All my family contributed to finance my school, I cannot ask them to help me,” says this youngest of a siblings of six children.
created in 2016, the Linkee association provides, upon presentation of a valid student card, fruits, vegetables, starchy foods, cheeses … often organic, labeled or from fair trade. “We recover surplus, unsold and damaged products – but still good – from farmers, wholesalers or traders”, exhibits Julien Meimon, founder of Linkee. In its thirty sites in France, the association also offers psychological support, via the association Les Psys du Coeur, and also gives cinema, theater or opera places.
between 250 and 300 parcels per week
Inside the common bar, Kad, 23, supervises distribution. Volunteer since November 2020 and sometimes beneficiary of the system, this master’s degree in computer science at the Sorbonne observes a constant increase in the number of young people who come to recover from foodstuffs. “When I started here, we provided around 150 packages each week. Today, we give between 250 and 300,” he says. “Two years after the health crisis, we see that we always have more precarious students in our distributions, and this situation unworthy. A country that is not interested in its youth corrupt all its possibilities of evolution”, Remends the founder of Linkee, Julien Meimon.
If students who go to food distributions are still numerous, they are also in even more complicated situations. Last year, the survey conducted by Linkee with the beneficiaries of his packages showed that one in two young people had, once the rent and the invoices paid, a “remains to be lived” of less than 50 euros to eat, Take care, dress or have fun. In its new 2022 survey, carried out with some 3,800 beneficiaries of the system, the share of those with less than 50 euros of “remains to live” is now 65 %.
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