In front of the volunteers, who are discussing with the beneficiaries of the World Cup and the arrival of the cold in the region, 90 sacks of food prepared for the marauders on Sunday, against 70 some time ago.
They are full of chips, compotes and cans. But these are missing. “Even the food banks are out of stock,” explains Cécilia Fonseca, president of the association, who now has to buy some every week.
The Food Banks recorded a 10% drop in their national collection this year. In May, the institute Ipsos reported a 30% decrease in donations to associations in 2021. A figure explained by greater generosity in 2020, in a context of health crisisbut also by current concerns about purchasing power.
“People are afraid, they are more attentive to themselves,” said Cécilia Fonseca, who also mentions the help given to “firefighters with fires and Ukraine” in the department.
To hit
There is enough food for all beneficiaries this Sunday evening.
The vast majority are men, of all ages, who live “on the street, in squats but also people who have a house but live in precarious conditions”, notes Nawal Fellah, a 48-year-old volunteer, pushing a trolley of hot drinks.
Some come to ask him for a coffee after being given a blanket for the night, like Benjamin, 23. The young man, who keeps “a notebook with all the marauders” of Bordeaux, has been living for six months in “a small field” waiting to obtain, perhaps, helpers.
In October, the apparent lack of emergency accommodation, among other grievances, triggered a strike by the Gratuits and four other Bordeaux organizations for two weeks. Even ten mayors of large cities, including Pierre Hurmic in Bordeaux, had denounced the elimination of 14,000 jobs in 2023, before the state gave up.
In mid-December, the metropolis of Bordeaux and some other cities in the Gironde had 1,748 seats, more than 98% filled. Interviewed by AFP, the prefecture announced the opening of 73 posts from 1 November, another 43 in mid-December and 50 by the end of the year.
New profiles
Present a few days later during another food distribution, Gary, 38, explains that he “dialed 115 a lot”, the social emergency number, without success. He finally benefited from a study through the Diaconat de Bordeaux, a Protestant mutual aid structure.
This solution affects Gabriel, at his side. After having to quit his job at a large Bordeaux company during the health crisis, he left his apartment to sleep in his car.
«I make sure I’m always impeccable with myself, so as not to sink», explains the forty-year-old who sends his curriculum vitae from a library and takes a shower in sports halls waiting to find work and accommodation.
He typed “help for SDF” on the internet to find a solution and presented a file to the Municipal Social Action Center but “it stopped there, there are too many people”, he observes. Since then he has continued to come to the association which confirms the arrival of new profiles like his, or Ukrainian refugees.
And Cécilia Fonseca fears that the crisis is pushing more and more people onto the streets.
After the strike, Les Gratuits decided to boycott the second Bordeaux edition of the “Solidarity Night”, organized by the municipality on January 26, to protest against the lack of resources allocated to the associations.
With the AFP.
