“Sport, that's it, it's the collective.
It's really great as an initiative.
Pauline is a student and had traveled Thursday, March 11, for the distribution of packed lunches organized by the Paris Basketball club at the Halle Georges Charpentier, in the 13th arrondissement.
Solidarity distribution enabled Parisian students to collect a bag containing all kinds of food.
"Each basket includes 500 g of rice, 500 g of pasta, 1 kg of carrots, 1 kg of bananas, strawberry and chocolate cakes", explains Romane Zeli, marketing manager of the club, who is not at its first solidarity action.
“We believe that as a sports club we can do things like this to help the community.
At Christmas, for example, we had set up a collection of gifts for the Secours populaire.
"
Club volunteers had prepared each packed lunch in advance.
LP / Amber Siskin
This Thursday, about 100 students had registered.
“We have planned 200 baskets to go big, but, being a basketball club, we do not necessarily reach all these young people.
The club thus donated the remaining baskets to the Courte Échelle Paris association, which also distributes meals to students.
"This is the first time that I am going to a distribution"
The sports association created in 2018 did not just circulate information on its social networks.
Paris Basketball sent the announcement to Parisian schools and universities, asking them to broadcast it.
And it paid off.
“It was my school that sent me an email about this distribution of food baskets,” explains Pauline, enrolled in a fashion school.
So, I jumped at the chance.
The 23-year-old student, who lives in La Défense, crossed Paris to get there.
1/2 # OperationSolidaireÉtudiants 🤝
Hello team, tomorrow we are organizing a distribution of food baskets to support the students 👨🎓🧺 pic.twitter.com/vUb6janJsf
- Paris Basketball (@Paris_Basket) March 10, 2021
“This is my first time going to a distribution.
Usually, I don't necessarily watch the collections, because I don't consider myself in an extremely precarious situation, she says.
But, there, I told myself that these baskets were also made to help us and to prevent us from ending up having too much trouble.
"
"Short circuit" baskets
These 200 packed lunches are also an opportunity to offer these young adults quality food.
“We wanted to present a coherent basket and we found that respecting the short circuit and offering fairly high-quality products was important,” explains Romane Zeli, the marketing manager.
An initiative that is also part of a short circuit.
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“We are club subscribers, we have followed them since their beginnings,” recount Guillaume and Maelenn, managers of the Grand Panier Bio franchise store, which provided the bags used for the packed lunches.
“When they offered us the initiative, we immediately accepted.
"
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Their store located in Noisy-le-Grand (93) is also close to the training center of the Parisian club.
"And, then, there is one of our customers right here", they indicate by indicating Kevin Franceschi, professional player of the club, present during the distribution.
Each student had to register online before picking up their lunch.
LP / Amber Siskin
“It's a project that is really close to our hearts,” explains Kevin Franceschi, the Paris Basketball winger who wanted to show his support for the students.
Giving to people is very important and, at the same time, it brings us closer to them.
"
"It is a real pleasure to distribute the baskets"
Now is the time to share.
"It is a real pleasure to distribute the baskets but also to speak with them, while remaining simple", underlines the 27-year-old player, masked like all the volunteers present.
One thing is certain, this Paris Basketball initiative also allowed students to discover this sports association and some of its players.
Pauline assures him: “I'm going to follow them, I was able to see what they were doing and discover the club.
That too is cool.
"
