2023-11-27 09:32:00
Since June 1, the Biocoop Courreau store has accepted a new payment method: MonA. This digital currency was put into circulation by the Territoires à VivreS collective, a national program for experimenting with new forms of solidarity around food which takes place in four territories: Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse and Montpellier. In the capital of Hérault, it brings together 25 organizations including Secours catholique, the National Interest Market, the Unesco World Food Chair, solidarity grocery stores and the Vrac & Cocinas association.
Their idea: test a common food fund (CAC). “Our initiative starts from the question of food inequalities at a time when the ecological transition is becoming an imperative, explains Pauline Scherer, co-founder of Vrac & Cocinas. Precarious people have difficulty accessing fresh and organic products. Food comes second to rent and bills, even though it has a major impact on their health and dignity. » This sociologist defends the right to sustainable food, which the food aid system does not provide: “It offers the possibility of being fed, but does not give the choice of products, mainly from the agri-food industry: their environmental impact is not good and their nutritional quality is low. »
Dignity. First tested in the summer of 2021, in the form of vouchers, at the Celleneuve farmers’ market, the CAC was officially launched in January 2022. The principle: each participant receives 100 euros in MonA in exchange for a contribution , the amount of which remains free, and spends the amount in approved businesses. The rules were clarified by a citizens’ committee, set up in October 2022 and made up of 47 volunteers with varied profiles, a third of them using food aid. “There are not donors on one side and beneficiaries on the other, underlines one of the members, Paul Rouveyrol. We agreed that even the poorest had to contribute at least one euro. It is not a system of charity, but of solidarity. »
However, a guide has been created to help participants evaluate the amount of their contribution based on their salary, their remaining living and their food budget. Around forty businesses were selected: farmers’ markets, Biocoop, neighborhood grocery stores, cooperative supermarkets, etc. “Accessibility to organic products has driven us since our opening, but what is interesting about the MonA is that it is impossible to distinguish people in need from others, there is no discrimination”, greets Théo Cizeron, manager of Biocoop Courreau, where the new payment system represents nearly 2% of turnover. Run by two trained agronomists, the organic grocery store Folle Avoine, located in the Beaux-Arts district, is also seeing the arrival of a new clientele, “people who otherwise wouldn’t eat as many vegetables, and who turn out to be faithful”underlines Anne-Laure Chaigne.
80 %
This is the estimated share of women within the citizens’ committee of the common food fund.
19 %
This is the poverty rate in the metropolis (compared to 14.5% in France).
Law proposition. But, to change practices, “we can’t just focus on the individual, we also have to change the environment”, believes Pauline Scherer, who wants to change the food offering in disadvantaged neighborhoods and, why not, create specific points of sale at the CAC. Still in an experimental state, this will be the subject of an initial assessment in March. But the results are already encouraging. “The biggest expectation was to get out of the food aid system and regain dignity. In this regard, the first testimonies are moving in the right direction”, specifies Paul Rouveyrol. The citizens’ committee is growing: it will have 61 people in December. The best surprise comes from the contributions, which represent 60% of the CAC’s financing, the rest coming from the Fondation de France, the Carasso Foundation, the Banque des Territoires, the Occitanie region, the metropolis and the city of Montpellier.
“However, the economic model remains to be found”, concedes Pauline Scherer, who exchanges with other experimental territories and the few deputies who are interested in the establishment of social food security (SSA), such as Richard Ramos. Elected MoDem of Loiret, the one who fought for the ban on nitrites in charcuterie is now working on a bill for the creation of an SSA. “This would consist of giving each French person with a tax number a credit card of 20 euros per month, which they could supplement by carrying out an activity without social security contributions (help with homework, to an elderly person, etc.)”, explains the deputy. Costed at 12 billion euros, the system would be financed by a tax on products classified D and E on the Nutri-score or by a new branch of Social Security. Richard Ramos is giving himself until the first half of 2024 to find transpartisan support for his proposal §
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