They were 448, or more than one in five, families who did not pay for the school canteen, in 2019, in Melun where 2,500 meals are served every day to schoolchildren.
The left municipal opposition puts at the heart of the debate the pricing of school catering provided, since 2012 and until 2022, by Elior, according to a public service delegation.
Elected from the opposition group Living well in Melun, Céline Gillier (PS) offers meals for less than one euro, or even completely free.
"With the return of catering, free for all was in our electoral program in 2020 because it is a basic service," she insists.
"We are no longer in the world before, but in the world for the worse"
His request comes in the context of the pauperization of the population in Melun.
“In 2020, unemployment increased by 15% in Seine-et-Marne.
It is necessary to review social policy vis-à-vis children.
There are invisible people who don't eat lunch in the canteen.
One in four Melunais is poor and this, already before the crisis
(Editor's note: according to INSEE, 25% of Melunais lived below the poverty line in 2018)
.
We are no longer in the world before, but in the worse world, ”says Céline Gillier.
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The canteen price grid extends from 1.05 euros per meal, for families receiving minimum social benefits and allowances, up to 5.25 euros for those earning more than 4000 euros per month.
The lowest bracket represents only 2.6% of revenue while the highest weighs 28.4%.
"We must go further and faster," launches the elected socialist.
“It is the role of politicians to respond to a need, to find solutions on a daily basis for the inhabitants.
Otherwise we will pay dearly for it.
Let us remember the abstention rate in the last municipal elections in Melun.
»A record rate which actually rose to 77.1%!
"There are more than 20% of single-parent families in Melun"
In this city, which has 37% of social housing in 2021 against more than 43% before the urban renewal programs, the economic and social context is gloomy.
“The number of registrants with us in Melun has increased by 50%,” says Fabrice Gourhan, the departmental director of Restos du Cœur.
“Of our 1,540 families registered, we have 354 single-parent families, or 23% of the total, 73% of them have one or two children and 27% have more than three children.
»In Melun, the average monthly salary per household was 1350 euros in 2015.
“There are more than 20% of single-parent families in Melun.
We are aware that things have to be adapted.
But the overall free provision of non-compulsory public services is not on principle!
Exclaims Henri Mellier (Agir), assistant in charge of school affairs.
“All these services have a cost: a meal costs around 8 euros.
The community pays the difference with the price charged.
Taxpayers don't have to pay for everything.
"
Henri Mellier affirms that the city is "open to changes in the price list".
The discussion will be launched during the budget orientation debate.
“You have to know where you are putting the cursor, find points of balance and not make everything rest on the taxpayers alone.
"
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Following the first confinement, which had deprived all the schoolchildren of a canteen, the municipality had offered vouchers to the families concerned to offset the additional cost of meals taken at home.
46,000 euros of unpaid bills in 2019
According to Henri Mellier, “up to 50 euros per child, the city does not launch a prosecution”.
“But the mass of unpaid bills does not come from households located in the lowest brackets.
In the 2018-2019 report, it is more about middle-class families who are struggling to make ends meet.
The pride of the most modest people is to pay their bills right away.
»The total of unpaid debts has nevertheless decreased: it went from 92,224 euros in 2015 to 46,000 euros in 2019.
Referring to cases of children removed from the canteen due to unpaid bills from their parents, Latifa, representative of parents of students at the Beauregard nursery school, believes that "free for some families would be a good thing".
“1.05 euro per meal, it seems ridiculous but multiplied by three or four children, that figures quickly.
We pay more than 5 euros for a meal (starter, main course, dessert) for our child while my husband and I are in the middle class: we each earn less than 1800 euros per month.
"