Every day, around 70 people go to the restaurant of Dounia Mebtoul and her mother Malika, “La Cantine du 18” in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
Not to consume a dish of the day inside this family canteen, rather to serve freely in the fridge which is placed in front of the entrance.
The mother and daughter founded the restaurant in 2012. In 2017, Dounia decided to put a self-service fridge on her terrace. This is how the first “solidarity fridge” was born. The principle is simple: residents and traders can deposit foodstuffs there which will be made available to those in need. Very quickly, the association was created, and solidarity fridges were deployed throughout France. Today, there are 79, including 15 in Île-de-France.
In Ramey Street, Dounia and Malika's fridge is "a star in the neighborhood", as the girl likes to describe it.
Every day, neighboring restaurateurs fill it with their unsold items.
The day we meet the two women, oriental pastries, kebab, curried pork stir-fry or marinated chicken have been deposited.
Very quickly, "regulars" come to collect a meal.
“People take in 5 minutes, not even!
», Says Dounia, at the wheel of her car, the trunk filled with homemade yogurts by La Laiterie de Paris.
“They did not sell everything, so instead of throwing them in the trash, they thought of the solidarity fridge.
"
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Among the beneficiaries, the homeless, but also retirees, students, large families ... "People who work, who have housing, but who struggle to feed themselves at the end of the month," says Dounia.
The young thirty-something tells how profiles have diversified since the start of the health crisis.
Suddenly, she saw many more students arrive, families who have plunged into precariousness, people who have lost their jobs.
And despite the end of successive confinements, in front of Dounia's restaurant, the situation does not seem to have improved.
“This is the hidden part of the iceberg,” she laments.
The more we advance, the more people lose their jobs, encounter difficulties, everything
is increasing, and there are real challenges to be faced in Paris today ”.
