There is a queue in front of the main Staps building this Tuesday lunchtime. It must be said that in two weeks, the news spread like wildfire among Nantes sports students. For just 2 euros, you can leave with 1 kg of potatoes, three carrots, broccoli, two onions and half a bunch of radishes in your bag. For an additional 2 euros, tomatoes, apples, half a squash and a sweet potato are added to the order. All thanks to Miam Amap, a project set up by the AE Staps association, which distributes these organic and local baskets at low prices once a week.
Created four years ago, this service sees demand grow year after year. The start of the school year has only just begun and 65 students have already registered for this distribution and the next twenty. Like Emma, in first year, who waits in front of the small stand, her shopping bag in hand. “As I am on a scholarship, I am entitled to meals for 1 euro. I take one in the UK at lunchtime and I buy one at the cafe for the evening, she explains. But I can’t take Pasta boxes at every dinner anymore… With Amap, I’ll be able to mix all that with vegetables. » “For the same price at Leclerc, you get nothing at all,” calculates a Master’s student. It allows you to save for other expenses, but not for meat because it’s really too expensive. And also eating broccoli, I love it! »
Amaps are multiplying
While food represents one of the most important items for students, Amaps have multiplied, sometimes not without difficulty, in the universities of Nantes and other cities in France. In Rennes 1, Amap, for example, distributes between 50 and 60 baskets (at 7.50 euros for a small one and 10 for a large one) every Tuesday evening. “It’s the most we can do,” explains Martin, the manager. Our partner market gardener cannot deliver more, and we lack the resources. With three people, it’s complicated to organize everything and communicate. »
Here, the baskets are sold at cost price, even if a project of the association would be to offer reduced prices for scholarship students. An approach already adopted by the Cagette verte, the Amap of the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin (UVSQ), which sells baskets purchased for 14.75 euros from the producer to all students for 8 euros. “We can easily find funding via the FSDIE (aid for the development of student initiatives), confides Matthieu, treasurer of the Icare association. This allows students who could not afford to consume differently to do so. »
“We will not be able to respond to all students”
At the Miam Amap in Nantes, all the baskets are sold four times cheaper than the price charged by the market gardener in Saint-Philbert-de-Grandlieu who ensures weekly delivery. But the project leaders are worried. “We need 30,000 euros per year, and it is increasingly complicated to find sources of financing,” explain Ines Herault and Lucas Guérin, at the helm of AE Staps. More and more students are no longer able to feed yourself and for cheap. In Staps, diet is extremely important when you sometimes have 1h30 of sport per day. »
In addition to a subsidy from the university, Amap relies on teachers who can also collect a basket… but for 1 euro more than the purchase price. Because we must also finance the “relief baskets”, offered to students “in great precariousness” targeted by the administration.
For this year, the students in charge of Miam Amap have set the maximum number of baskets that they can distribute each week at 120. “We try to do everything we can but we will not be able to respond to all the students,” laments Eleanor Blot, president of Inter AssoNantes, to which AE Staps depends. It’s good that our associations take care of it, but what we need is for social assistance to be sufficient. » According to the association, a student skips on average three meals per week.