“If nothing is done, we could have to close within three years”, alerted this Sunday the Restos du Coeur. In financial difficulty, the association resigned itself this winter to reducing the number of beneficiaries of their food aid. With inflation, the Restos du Coeur are once again forced to “say no to 150,000 people that we could have welcomed before inflation”, regrets Patrice Douret.
In response, the Minister of Solidarity Aurore Bergé promised the association on Sunday additional aid of 15 million euros. An envelope of 6 million euros must also be distributed to associations helping very young children (via the distribution of diapers, infant milk, small pots, etc.), announced on TF1 the minister who has also, launched a “solemn appeal to large companies” so that they mobilize “for the help of the most fragile”.
In addition, the Les Mousquetaires group, in consultation with the association, “will set up, before the end of the year, collection operations specifically dedicated to Restos du Coeur via its Intermarché and Netto brands”. In all, 2,100 stores will be affected in France.
If the group also has its own agri-food factories, “the Mousquetaires business leaders have also decided to support the association with significant donations from their 56 production units”, such as food or baby diapers produced in Brittany . “We cannot remain indifferent to the difficulties that our fellow citizens encounter in eating well, or even just eating,” said Thierry Cotillard, president of the Groupement les Mousquetaires, in a press release.
Alexandre Bompard, CEO of the Carrefour group also reacted this Sunday evening on the BFMTV set: “The difficulties of the Restos du Coeur are the expression of the difficulties of the French”. If he has not, for the time being, announced any measures, Alexandre Bompard guaranteed that the group “will be there, as we have always been”. “We will look at what we can do financially,” he added.