“Super U or McDonald’s? »At lunchtime, dozens of students from the University Institute of Technology (IUT) of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) stop on the sidewalk, in front of the establishment, to ask themselves the same question. everyday. The supermarket seems to be getting the favors of many of them. They walk down the street like a procession to buy vacuum-packed sandwiches, crisps and other industrial salads.
This should not be seen as a choice of diet, catering solutions are quite simply lacking for the 600 students of this IUT, branch of the University of Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis. Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, the private service provider in charge of catering, since 2016 and the abandonment of the regional center for university and school works (Crous), has decided to keep the doors of the “UK” closed, justifying the health crisis at first, before explaining that it was not profitable enough to reopen.
“We would like to eat hot, warm and a little more balanced”
“There is not much in the neighborhood, and it is not very varied,” explains Justine, listing the Super U, McDonald’s, a bakery and a kebab as the only solutions nearby, “further, it would not be tenable during the lunch break ”. These alternatives, appreciated in the short term, have long bored them, as a student explains, salad and bottle of soda in hand: “We would like to eat hot, warm and a little more balanced. “” And above all for less! », Bounces one of his comrades.
“At Restaurant U, the meal is 3.30 euros for students. And even at 1 euro for scholarship students, recalls this student, even taking the minimum, at the supermarket, it quickly costs 5, 6 or 7 euros. “Which corresponds, for these young people with limited income, to a note of 100 to 200 euros more per month, just to eat. It is of course possible to prepare a bowl for lunch at home, but it is also necessary to be able to reheat it. And only two microwaves are available to the 600 students, a queue too long to have time to eat peacefully afterwards.
No reopening planned
With 80 seats, this room is also too small to accommodate all the students, who often have to fall back on the corridors and halls of the establishment. Aïssa, bundled up in her down jacket, eats a salad on a window sill with a friend. “We can’t take it anymore, we’re already starting to freeze. It’s going to be a long winter, ”she laughs, while others continue to brave the cold outside.
If many manage to keep smiling in the face of this situation, they are nonetheless outraged. “It’s unfair, we’re students, like the others, it’s not normal that we don’t have a restaurant, a canteen. To plead their case, the students alerted all possible instances. First, the Crous de Créteil, in charge of student catering. Contacted by 20 minutes, the organization did not wish to respond to the requests, contenting itself with repeating what has already been answered to the students: “There is no question for the moment of reopening the university canteen. For the moment, it is only envisaged to install a distributor of dishes to be reheated in the form of trays. “
A situation far from isolated
“Yet it is their mission, after social assistance and housing for students, explains Imane Ouelhadj, vice-president in charge of social affairs of the student union Unef, the problem is that the state no longer gives them the means to ensure it. “
Although powerless on the subject of catering, the University of Paris 8 denounces a “breach of equality” between the students of a large structure like the faculty of Saint-Denis and a smaller one “therefore hardly profitable” like the ‘IUT of Montreuil. Even the town hall, contacted by 20 minutes, urges the parties concerned to resolve the situation and prospect “to find alternatives” while waiting for a more lasting solution.
“It is urgent to tackle the student precariousness which has only exploded with the Covid-19. The only viable solution is to give resources back to the CROUS, ”explains Imane Ouelhadj. According to this student, Montreuil is only one example among many others in Île-de-France, and throughout the country. “The case of the University of Paris-Saclay is revealing of the problem, a large number of small structures far from each other and many are or will find themselves in this situation. “