Even with help, they deprive themselves of the essentials. More than a quarter (27%) of beneficiaries of Secours Catholique food aid “do not eat for a whole day or more, on a regular basis”, unveils the charity, Thursday, November 18, in its annual report on the state of poverty in France. A situation “alarming”, which particularly affects “households without resources, single parents and single people”.
To this food insecurity “serious”, is added insecurity “moderate “, which concerns 53% of people assisted. This situation implies strict trade-offs on the quality, diversity and frequency of meals. Skipping a meal is a common practice in this category, especially when it comes to sacrificing yourself for your children. “When the income is barely sufficient (…), we cut corners on the variable part of the expenses, starting with food and heating”, deplores the association.
The Secours Catholique derives these figures from a survey carried out in May and June 2021 among a sample of 1,088 households benefiting from the association’s service vouchers in 2020. These tickets, granted urgently in response to the disruption of distributions conventional foods during the health crisis, can be used in most supermarkets. One hundred euros per book, “enough to last a fortnight”, described a single mother of three children in the Ardennes, in April 2020, in a testimony to Secours Catholique.
As an introduction to this survey carried out in twelve departments, the French branch of the Caritas network recalls the continuous increase in the use of food aid in France, “which seems inexorable” : 2.6 million beneficiaries in 2009, compared to 5 to 7 million now, all sources of aid combined. Last year, for 57% of beneficiaries of Secours Catholique services vouchers, it was the first time that they asked for a helping hand to eat.
“With the crisis, demands for food aid have increased, especially among families with children and among young people under 25.”
Catholic Aid-Caritas Francein its annual report on the state of poverty
How to explain this increase? During the first confinement, which put a large part of economic activity at a standstill, three in ten households questioned tell the association to have “suffered loss of income”. The closure of schools, and therefore canteens, has also placed an unforeseen burden on the budget of 60% of families with children, forced to provide additional meals at home.
Less income on one side, more expenses on the other: “the pandemic has often worsened the intensity of the poverty already experienced”, summarizes Secours Catholique. Within the sample surveyed, half of households have a monthly standard of living of less than 235 euros, “far below the extreme poverty line”, set at 739 euros (these figures being calculated by totaling household income and weighting them according to the number of people who compose it).
A situation worsened by the non-recourse to aid (RSA or family allowances) to which some families could claim: among the entire public hosted by the association, a third of people eligible for RSA do not benefit from it, and a quarter of those entitled to family allowances do not have recourse to it. Foreigners in a regular situation are the most affected, with non-appeal rates “twice as high on average” than those of French households, underlines the report. More generally, people of foreign nationality, deprived of the right to work when they have no legal status, are over-represented in requests for food aid and in situations of serious food insecurity.
Restricting the quantity and quality of one’s food is a source of concern for those concerned, explains the survey. Eight out of ten households surveyed say they are “concerned” by the effects of their diet on their health. This health concern is greatest among single-parent families and couples with children. In these households, half of food aid recipients say they cannot pay more attention to nutritional intake due to “financial problems”. Lack of time or information on food is cited by less than 4% of households who say they are worried.
Asked by Secours Catholique, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Olivier De Schutter, underlines that this health issue goes beyond the sole framework of recipients of food aid. “Many families change their diet and move towards lower quality products which are a source of health problems (obesity, diabetes, associated cardiovascular diseases), he describes. We thought for a long time that low-cost products were the solution for insecure households (…) But this is not a solution, because it makes people sick. “
“People living in poverty are now realizing that low-cost is a trap in which they have been locked.”
Olivier De Shutter, Belgian academicto Catholic Relief
Faced with these findings, and a few months before the presidential election, the association calls for “to make fraternity the compass of our political choices” in 2022. In particular to guarantee better access to food, it proposes the establishment of a guaranteed minimum income of around 920 euros per month for all adults in a legal situation, subject to means-tested conditions. She also wants easier regularizations for migrants. “having started their insertion”, especially undocumented workers, and a reduction in the non-use of social rights.