In the basket of Mike*, 25, you can find toothpaste, cashew nuts, iced tea, strawberries or even bread, all for only a dozen euros thanks to the new solidarity grocery store of Toulouse-Capitol University, open for three weeks. A godsend for this student who arrived from Yemen a year and a half ago. “Despite the help from my parents and my scholarship, I can’t always cover all my food expenses,” says the foreign student who is taking French courses at university. That’s my biggest difficulty. »
The grocery store was set up in collaboration with the Food Bank to provide students in difficulty with products at only 10 to 30% of their supermarket price. It was a long-standing project of the presidency of Toulouse Capitole University and which Chloé Calmette, teacher-researcher, was finally able to materialize. “Student precariousness was already present before the health crisis, but it has increased recently, notes this former university student. It was normal for us to be by their side so that they could follow their schooling peacefully. »
Foreign students particularly exposed
Open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 7 p.m., the grocery store has the particularity of being also accessible to students from other Toulouse universities. A pre-selection on social criteria is done online with a file to be completed, in English if necessary, international students being particularly exposed to precariousness. “For the moment, we see that it is mainly foreign students who come,” remarks Séverine, 47, volunteer at the grocery store and nursing assistant in retraining.
With the war in Ukraine, the university also took the decision to open the grocery store to Ukrainian and Russian students, even non-scholarship holders. Anastasia, 23, from Siberia, was delighted to learn of this, as her parents in Russia can no longer send her money due to international sanctions weighing on the country’s banks. “At this stage, my bank card is good for the trash,” ironically the young woman in Master 2 of Management at the Toulouse Capitole University. In her shopping basket is soap, chocolate coulants, cereals, butter and even sunscreen, essential according to her to adapt to the change in climate since she moved in. “Fortunately, I have a paid internship scheduled soon as part of my studies. I tried to find a job as a waitress to finance myself but employers reproach me for my level of French. »
To accommodate student work schedules, the grocery store plans to open on weekends as well.
*Name has been changed