“More than 15% of French people live below the poverty line, a figure that has never been reached,” warned Yves Mérillon, a spokesman for Restos du coeur.

Restos du coeur spokesperson and volunteer Yves Mérillon returns at “11am/1pm” on Tuesday, November 18, on the reality of poverty in France. So, “42% of the families we receive, after rent and rental fees have been paid, do not have a single euro left for the end of the month”he complained, on the sidelines of the launch of the association’s annual campaign.

This text corresponds to the transcription of the interview section above. Click on the video to watch the full interview.

You are the spokesperson for the Restos du coeur association and you yourself are a volunteer for twelve years now. We’ve heard it, you must tighten access criteria. How do you explain that more and more French people are in trouble?

Yves Merillon: I believe there is a series of crises. The latest was a spike in inflation after the outbreak of war in Ukraine that pushed tens of thousands of people to the wrong side. INSEE made this clear this summer by publishing a study showing that more than 15% of French people live below the poverty line. This is a number that has never been reached.

Who are the people turning to Restos du coeur?

There are many young people. This surprised us the first time we did the statistics. Half of the people we welcome are under 25 years old. It’s huge. There are students, there are children who have families. There are also many single-parent families, which is a major concern for us because we know that they are much more fragile than two-parent families. Then we always have retirees with small pensions, people whose careers have stalled. We have poor workers who work part time and cannot make ends meet.

What criteria are you applying this year?

We have an income threshold, which is the amount of time we have left to live. We compare a family’s remaining living expenses to a certain threshold. If we are below, we can access food aid. I’ll give you a scary picture: 42% of the families we accept, after the rent and rental fees are paid, no longer have euros to end the month. So, we look at these people, like any other association, because otherwise they can’t make ends meet. Or in the case of single parent families, mothers who tell us: “I, my children, they will not lack anything, but I will be the one to eat less than one or two meals a day.”

Do you observe any disparities by region?

There are disparities between rural and urban areas, but in the end they are still people who not only have very low incomes, but are also in precarious conditions in terms of employment, social rights and housing. These are the people who accumulate vulnerabilities. It’s not just food insecurity.

Restaurants that have to be on time still exist. Isn’t this a certain form of failure, although that is a difficult term to use, when we see how important it is?

This is a failure of society, showing that it is unable to protect all citizens. But a former minister also said that seeing volunteers able to take on this challenge was also a way of not giving up on human nature.

Click on the video to watch the full interview.