Some 2.4 million French people depend on food aid. This is the result of a study published by the Food Bank on Monday, February 27, a figure that has tripled in ten years.
They work, but cannot feed their families properly. The working poor now represent 17% of the beneficiaries of food distributions. Students are also increasingly asking for support from food banks. Just like retirees. All of them are bearing the brunt of the rise in prices in stores for basic necessities.
In total, 2.4 million people benefited from food aid at the end of 2022, through the network of food banks and their partners, i.e. three times more people than ten years ago. But the real figure is probably closer to 5 million, because there are other food aid networks in France, such as the Restos du Coeur, the Red Cross.
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Food insecurity has been on the rise since the pandemic
The international context, the war in Ukraine, the wheat crisis, the rise in the cost of raw materials have accelerated this phenomenon. ” Since 2008, the various economic and health crises have resulted in this slow tide of recourse to food aid which has never receded “, underlines Laurence Champier, federal director of the French Federation of food banks, at the origin of the study published on February 27.
To cope with this increase, the French Federation of Food Banks is looking for new donors from local producers and farmers, local authorities and the State. In addition, the associations are waiting to know the terms and conditions for setting up the Sustainable Food Aid Fund whose creation was announced by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, in November 2022.