Between the inflation in supermarkets and the lines of students in front of food banks, the idea had gained ground. A headache for the executive, the food check does not ultimately appear in the 2023 budget. It was initially intended to allow low-income households to buy fresh and local products, but given the complexity of the system, the government announced in June that he would merge into a simpler “inflation check”, distributed at the start of the school year.
However, the government wants to respond specifically to food. Elisabeth Borne thus announced this Thursday a “sustainable food aid fund” of 60 million euros in 2023, during a visit to the Food Bank of the Marne, in Reims. “It is 60 million euros that we are going to mobilize in 2023 to both support our major national players, so that they can buy more quality products, fresh products”, declared the Prime Minister to the press. after his visit. The objective is to allow the “most fragile” French people to have access to “quality food”.
“Major national networks” and “local projects”
“We also want to support initiatives like the one we saw this morning in the territories, for example quality products on a short circuit for our food banks and the associations which are mobilized on this food aid”, explained the chef. of the government. The Prime Minister was accompanied for this trip by the Minister of Solidarity Jean-Christophe Combe and the Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life, Marlène Schiappa. The mayor (Horizons) of Reims Arnaud Robinet was also present.
These 60 million euros will go, explained Elisabeth Borne, “both to the major national networks that offer food aid, in calls for projects that we are going to launch” but also “to local projects, through regional prefects. The latter “will be able to support initiatives (…) between farmers, producers who will also be able to offer short circuits for quality food. For example, also setting up sustainable food vouchers since it is something that we want to be able to then develop on a national scale, ”continued the head of government.