Restos du Cœur

Saint Pargoire has supported the Restos du Cœur,  Pézenas branch for several years, acknowledging its vital work with the local community.

Update on Restos du Coeur 2015 national collection

This year, 67,600 volunteers and more than 700 business partners took part in the national collection on behalf of the Restos du Coeur. The volunteers many of them students, collected dried and tinned foodstuffs at more than 6,000 supermarkets across France over the weekend of the 6th/7th February 2015. These products will be critical to the ability of Restos du Coeur to help vulnerable people in 2015 and into 2016.

The foodstuffs collected included canned vegetables / meat / fish, and ready meals, along with baby and hygiene products.

Last year, the national collection allowed Restos du Coeur to serve more than 6 million meals to the neediest people. The number of guests visiting their distribution centres on a regular basis has stabilised at around one million persons.

Update on Restos du Cœur @ Christmas

Thursday 18th of December 2014 was the final stocking-up day for the Restos before their last distribution (Friday) of Christmas Food. So our delivery of wonderful goods collected at the last service was very much appreciated. Every one of the volunteers was working flat out to prepare for the next day's handouts.

One of the organisers from the Montpellier centre was visiting the Pézenas branch, and Claude, the chief there, informed him of our regular contributions. The visitor commented  that nothing like that happens in Montpeller, so we can all be proud of our support throughout the year.

Apparently the number enrolling for help this year is down by 10% on last year, but the circumstances of the people are worse than ever. Claude told us that they have enrolled four young men with family problems and who are sleeping rough in the cemetery.

One wonders in this day and age how such things are still going on. Let's hope it is a mild Christmas for them and that social services can also help.

Barbara

Emergencies faced by Les Restos

The Restos had a woman referred to them whose marriage had broken up . Her husband had thrown her out of the house, and refused to let her have access to her paperwork. As a result she had to start from scratch to obtain all the necessary papers. Meanwhile the Restos came to her help by providing her with provisions while the paperwork was going through the various authorities, which, as you can imagine, takes a long time.

Another example of the Restos filling in gaps was when a couple who were both in jobs, and were relatively well off, found themselves suddenly in need when the husband lost his job. They had a mortgage to pay, and unemployment benefit takes effect after six weeks only. Technically, on paper, their previous income was too high for the Restos to take them on. However, with themselves and five children to feed on what was just 500 € a month remaining, they could not cope, so the Restos came to their help while they were waiting.

These are just two of the many ways in which the Restos help those who have not enrolled for the weekly distribution, but are in temporary need at short notice. This is why our contributions are so much appreciated.

Did You Know ?

You may think that the Restos du Coeur just provides food items to help those in need, and the Restos Bébé just provides food and hygiene items for the under 1 year-olds. In fact at the latter there is great emphasis also in welcoming the mothers and talking to them and letting them meet other mothers who need help.

There is also a social side to the Restos, where they try to give support to those needing to integrate back into society. There are even schemes to integrate people back into the work place, and one such scheme has been to train people into learning the skills needed in market gardening.

Housing is another problem area, and the Restos has, in certain areas, some flats available in emergencies to take in families.

As you can imagine, those with very little money have never had a much needed holiday, here the Restos works with CAF (Caisse d'Action Familiale) to give holidays to families and children.

When some people go to get the paperwork completed for their eligibility for the the Restos, they sometimes find it difficult, and the reason  for this is not uncommonly found to be that they are illiterate. Once again help is given at workshops for adults and children.

So you can see what a widespread organisation it is, and how it meets the needs of so many people.

So can you bring things like biscuits, tins of ready meals for single people, chocolate, little bags of cakes etc. as well as basic items to a service at church and give what you have brought to Barry or Barbara before the service. They will take what you have brought directly to the Restos du Coeur depot in Pézenas.

Barbara

Location

The site in Pézenas is in an HLM (much like a council house flat), so it is quite small. It is hard to imagine that they stock up every Thursday of the year, except on Jours Feriés, to serve their clientèle the following day. At the moment they are only serving families and emergency cases, but they hand out the equivalent goods for about 8000 meals each time. The new enrolments take place this autumn, so the numbers will no doubt increase.

They serve 37 communes, with people who prefer to go to Pézenas rather than Béziers or Clermont, which may be nearer them, as they get more varied goods from them. For instance, there is a section marked "Cadeaux" where they can choose a certain number of items, according to the number in the family, in addition to their weekly rations. Many of the non-standard items our congregation provides go here, and are much appreciated. Also here are other items often given by Carrefour Market that are minimally damaged. For instance, we saw a can of deodorant with the top missing alongside a slightly dented tin of pâté. They also had other essential items such as toothpaste and Tampax all of which cost a lot of money when you are on a low income. Whilst we were there we also saw two ladies repacking a large pack of sugar that had been torn into smaller plastic bags. Nothing is wasted.

Claude, who is in charge of the premises, said how grateful they were after our SOS Pasta appeal, which really saved the day when no lorries were available from the Montpellier depot to bring supplies. I am sure our Harvest Festival donations in October will be very welcome too.

If anyone would like to come with us sometime when we deliver contributions, just let us know.

Barbara and Barry Marsh