What sustainable response to the explosion of food insecurity?
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 7:01 am
Food insecurity is increasing in France and the intense efforts of food aid associations are not enough to stop this increase. To respond to this emergency, the Montaigne Institute proposes, in a report published on October 16, 2024 (“Food divide: common ills, collective remedy ”), the introduction of a food voucher of 30 euros per month, intended for the purchase of fruits and vegetables for the 4 million most precarious French people. The cost, estimated at 1.4 billion euros, would be financed by a tax on added sugars, following the tax scheme proposed by the think tank.
Growing food insecurity in France
In France, food aid is mainly based on a network of 8,000 associative sites distributing food in the form of parcels (75% of them), meals (5%) or via social grocery switzerland phone number list stores (20%). These actions, while they provide essential assistance to the 4 million beneficiaries of food aid in France, are not enough to stem the constant progression of food insecurity [1] . Thus, in 2023, the Restos du Coeur saw a 20% increase in the number of people they received - a direct consequence of the sharp rise in food prices between 2022 and 2023 (+15%). The profile of the beneficiaries is also changing: they are younger (those under 25 now represent half of them, while they only make up 29.1% of the population and their economic situation is deteriorating) and 38% of the families they receive have nothing left to live on once their expenses have been paid.
Food insecurity is not only quantitative: it also concerns the quality and nutritional diversity of the products consumed. The poorest households buy half as much fruit and vegetables as the rest of the population and this has been the case consistently for 40 years [2] . This phenomenon is also linked to a lack of knowledge about food: recognizing a food is a crucial step before being able to buy, prepare and consume it. Today, however, one in five young people is unable to differentiate a zucchini from a cucumber. Testimonies from food bank volunteers reveal that a vegetable like cauliflower remains largely ignored by beneficiaries who often do not know it or do not know how to cook it.
Growing food insecurity in France
In France, food aid is mainly based on a network of 8,000 associative sites distributing food in the form of parcels (75% of them), meals (5%) or via social grocery switzerland phone number list stores (20%). These actions, while they provide essential assistance to the 4 million beneficiaries of food aid in France, are not enough to stem the constant progression of food insecurity [1] . Thus, in 2023, the Restos du Coeur saw a 20% increase in the number of people they received - a direct consequence of the sharp rise in food prices between 2022 and 2023 (+15%). The profile of the beneficiaries is also changing: they are younger (those under 25 now represent half of them, while they only make up 29.1% of the population and their economic situation is deteriorating) and 38% of the families they receive have nothing left to live on once their expenses have been paid.
Food insecurity is not only quantitative: it also concerns the quality and nutritional diversity of the products consumed. The poorest households buy half as much fruit and vegetables as the rest of the population and this has been the case consistently for 40 years [2] . This phenomenon is also linked to a lack of knowledge about food: recognizing a food is a crucial step before being able to buy, prepare and consume it. Today, however, one in five young people is unable to differentiate a zucchini from a cucumber. Testimonies from food bank volunteers reveal that a vegetable like cauliflower remains largely ignored by beneficiaries who often do not know it or do not know how to cook it.