The alarm bells had already been sounded in September. In great financial difficulty between high inflation and the growing number of beneficiaries, the Restos du coeur, via their president Patrick Douret, had launched a vast appeal for donations on TF1. To make up for the 35 million euros he was missing and thus hope to get through next winter. Because there was concern: the association created by Coluche in 1985 could go out of business within 3 years. While the State mobilized to the tune of 15 million euros, as did the Arnault family, who paid 10 million euros, the association’s budgetary balance is still not capable of reassure its management.
“From November, we are going to refuse people for the first time in the history of Restos du Cœur,” alerted the general delegate of the association, Jean-Yves Troy this Wednesday before the Finance Committee of the Assembly national. Which underlines the “massive and brutal side” of the crisis, more serious than that of 2008. “We are going to reduce the allocations for the number of people, we are also reducing the criteria for access to food aid,” he said. he warned.
For the manager, “the Restos du coeur are not sized today to distribute 170 million meals, and to accommodate 1.3 million people, 200,000 more people in one year who have knocked on the doors of the Restaurants. » Especially since the association is not “human-sized, even if (it has) 70,000 regular volunteers who are out of breath, because on the ground it is slaughter and that is not the role Restaurants.” To get through the winter of 2023-2024, Jean-Yves Troy is still relying heavily on the generosity of the population, particularly in December, when the association will enter a difficult period.