FOOD CHECK. The food check could make a comeback in 2022 if Emmanuel Macron is re-elected on April 24.
[Mis à jour le 31 mars 2022 à 09h36] The food check could be brought up to date by Emmanuel Macron. The current head of state has not ruled out the idea if he were to run for a second term: “jI want to set up a food check to help the most modest households and the middle classes to meet these additional costs.“. But then, in what form? The objective is clear for the executive, to promote the French sector. In other words, to encourage French households, and even the most modest to consume “more French” and to favor “short circuits” as the candidate LREM hammers in. The amount of this new food check could be around 60 euros, but no details have yet been given by the members of the Government.
Faced with the soaring price of a barrel of oil and therefore of fuel at the pump, the rise in tariffs and gas, and the explosion in the price of wheat and sunflower oil, the purchasing power of households is largely abused for several weeks. The objective therefore remains to relieve them, and for that, priority would be given to young people aged 18 to 25 whose incomes remain relatively low in this age group. Families with children and with modest incomes are also at the heart of this reflection. Emmanuel Macron wishes, through this maneuver, to integrate in a more important and sustainable way agriculture and production made in France in his food check project. For the moment, the details are not legion concerning a possible payment of the food check in the weeks to come. His return is also conditional on the re-election of Emmanuel Macron as President of the Republic on April 24. Details should therefore appear fairly quickly, in the coming weeks.
Discover the different price increases against which the Government is trying to fight:
The stated objective of the citizens’ convention for the climate was to allow the acquisition of “sustainable products (from agro-ecology, short circuits)”, could we so read in theth final report of the convention. In mid-December 2021, the President of the Republic then promised to carry out this project before the citizens of the convention: “You are right. We will do it”. A project finally abandoned since Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy had then admitted that the device would not see the light of day immediately, reports still having to be made. Questioned on March 23 by RMC, the president of the FNSEA, the main farmers’ union, supported this project, describing it as a “good idea” at the dawn of new increases. “It’s not just fuel. Wheat has doubled, said Christiane Lambert at RMC’s microphone. “Everything related to basic necessities, wheat, barley, corn, will increase further. Some countries will have shortages. We will have a price increase. It’s a good idea to help the most precarious.”
The Family Allowance Fund does not issue food vouchers nationwide. At the local level, certain food aid schemes can be put in place. It is advisable to contact the social action department of your fund. On its dedicated site, the Caf de Saône-et-Loire notably highlighted the implementation of one-off aid in April 2020, in order to help the poorest to buy basic food products. The device was then aimed at beneficiaries of family benefits, APL, RSA and the activity bonus.
The CCAS could have a central role in the allocation of the future food voucher. The Ministry of the Economy defended in any case in 2021 the idea that the municipal centers for social action ensure the distribution (read below). In fact, the CCAS already play a decisive role with the most precarious. They can indeed deliver aid, either in the form of aid in kind (food parcels), or financial aid (aid for school catering, food vouchers or vouchers, personalized support check, etc.).
Would you like to know if your municipality grants food stamps? Turn to your CCAS, because the devices vary from one locality to another. In the Somme department, for example, the CCAS of the town of Albert has set up vouchers worth 25 euros since June 2020. The number of vouchers varies according to the composition of the household from 4 to 7 vouchers “distributed for a period of 2 months renewable”.
The amount of the food check is not yet known. For the time being, only the deputy for Paris, Mounir Mahjoubi, has presented a quantified proposal, with a check whose price would be between 30 and 60 euros per month per family. “The total budget could then rise from a few hundred million to two billion euros,” said the deputy in February 2021 to Ouest-France. “Afterwards, this will come into confrontation with other proposals, such as specific allocations for the Covid period. This is the whole subject of the discussions which are taking place at governmental level”, he added then. The powerful agricultural union FNSEA offers a device that would allow you to spend 5 euros a day. Invited by Jean-Jacques Bourdin on April 21, 2021, Julien Denormandie had advanced the amount of 50 euros per month.
If Emmanuel Macron is re-elected and sets up this new aid, the food check should be a device aimed at the most deprived people. Emmanuel Macron spoke of “lower classes” and “middle classes” at France Bleu on March 22, 2022. What will be the criteria? Will there be a reference tax income threshold not to be exceeded? For the moment, these questions have not yet been arbitrated. At this stage, several leads are on the table. In 2021, the Ministry of the Economy defended the idea that the system be entrusted to the municipal centers for social action (CCAS), thus targeting 5 million beneficiaries, a track also presented by the citizens of the Citizens’ Convention in their report.
The Minister of Agriculture, he leaned more towards aid for “young people or families with children on low incomes”, in the form of a check or card. The idea is also carried by the deputy of Paris, Mounir Mahjoubi, who defends a project close to that of Julien Denormandie.
Charities, they estimate that the number of potential beneficiaries is much higher, at 8 million. According to a survey by the CSA institute, more than a million French people have used food banks since the start of the health crisis last March. “Having less than a million beneficiaries would not be useful; the real target would be between six and eight million,” said MP Mounir Mahjoubi in an interview with West-France in spring 2021.
Will young people be the first beneficiaries of Emmanuel Macron’s food check? Invited by Jean-Jacques Bourdin on April 21, 2021, the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, said he was in favor of it, while indicating that the arbitrations had not yet been made. “Today, we have not finished the job,” he admitted, while the decisions were to be made at the end of March. “Today, the number of people affected by this nutritional inequality is 8 million people. For me, my priority, among them, are young people, 18-25 year olds”. He also slipped that the amount of 50 euros was on the table.
Here too, the list must be subject to arbitration soon. In their report, the citizens of the Citizen’s Convention for the Climate defend a device allowing the purchase of “sustainable products (from agro-ecology, short circuits)”. “The term “sustainable” is usually used as designating the 50% of products that must enter into the composition of meals in collective catering (…) from the EGALIM law”, we can read.
“The LREM group offers to offer food vouchers (…) [qui] would make it possible to acquire virtuous products as specified in the Egalim law: fresh products with a sign of quality – organic type or labels – with a priority on fruits and vegetables”, explains Mounir Mahjoubi to the regional daily West France. “Opening up to other more expensive products would not necessarily be significant in the family basket. For us, 85% of the money invested will then have to go back to the farmers. We are however well aware that in certain working-class and urban constituencies, who have few sales in short circuits or on the farm, nothing will be possible if we do not work with large retailers”.
The scenario defended by Bercy, which proposes to assign this competence to the CCAS, is also on this line. “The State would therefore pay the difference between a normal food basket and a basket meeting the sustainable criteria (organic, red label, IGP, etc.) defined by the Egalim law of 2018”, can we read in The echoes.