The vote was decided by one vote. The National Assembly rejected, with the votes of the presidential majority, this Thursday, the one-euro meal for all students. Today in university restaurants, only scholarship holders and precarious young people can eat for this price. A highly appreciated device on the Saint-Denis campus.
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At midday, Thursday, February 9, the university restaurant and the cafeterias of the Saint-Denis campus in the Paris region are crowded. “The one-euro meal sometimes is my only meal of the day, for me it’s super important.” Amandine benefits from the measure of university meals at one euro. A godsend for this ergonomics student, because her food budget is very tight. “There are products that I haven’t eaten since I’ve been in Paris. For example, I don’t eat meat anymore, because it’s too expensive.” These meals allow Amandine to be able to continue eating without depriving herself.
For everyone, this one-euro meal is a real chance. “The meals are balanced even if in itself it is not super good, notes Anne-Florence, also a stockbroker. “It’s essential, it allows me to have a certain purchasing power,” adds Axel, a scholarship student.
“The money I save allows me to go out with friends and go back and forth to see my family who don’t live in Paris. It’s very important to me.”
Axel, studentat franceinfo
In 2022, 19 million discounted meals were distributed according to the Ministry of Higher Education. Today in university restaurants, only scholarship holders and precarious young people can eat for one euro, for the others the basic formula is 3.30 euros. This afternoon, the National Assembly rejected the proposal of the Socialists of “one euro meal for all students”. A measure that would cost between 60 and 90 million euros per year, according to the Socialists, but the presidential majority opposed it.
Students vote ‘yes’ to one-euro meals
In the canteens, the students are for this measure. For Héloïse and Emma, two non-scholarship students in their first year of psychology, lunches at the university remain too expensive. “Sometimes we don’t eat! I only eat if I’m very hungry”, Heloise sighs. Emma adds: “Me sometimes, I just take a small cake for one euro.”
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Faced with too high prices, many are now turning to free food distribution. A hundred young people line up, shopping bag in hand. “I’m not among the most deprived, but inevitably, it helps. I go there every two weeks or so”, explains Ivy. The master’s student in geography has not been on a scholarship since last year. If his parents help him a little and with a little job on the side, he has trouble financially. “I would like to be able to enjoy meals at one euro, it would relieve me.” But extending the system to all students is therefore not relevant. The Ministry of Higher Education prefers to target aid measures and recalls that an overhaul of the scholarship system is in the works.
Students vote for the one-euro meal for everyone in U restaurants – report by Noémie Bonnin
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