Alès cantine offers affordable meals amid cost of living crisis
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In Alès, a town of 50,000 people in the Gard department of France, the Rochebelle Solidarity Canteen provides low-cost meals to people with limited incomes.
Huguette and others regularly visit the canteen, which offers a full lunch, an appetizer, main course, and dessert, for a few euros, including wine and coffee.
The canteen prioritises serving people in need within a town where 30% of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. Isabelle Dourdil, the canteen’s coordinator, explained that the price is normally 7 euros, but people pay what they can afford, sometimes as little as 1 or 2 euros, or nothing at all. The canteen aims to ensure everyone has enough to eat.
The initiative addresses a wider crisis of purchasing power affecting many French people, as part of a series of reports on the issue.
