The city council meeting on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, only had to acknowledge the annual report of its service provider for Brest canteens, and it did so. But in what a way! Reminder of the facts: the company Brestmêm’, backed by the Elior group, signed a contract with the City in 2022 for school and after-school catering and, to a lesser extent, home meal delivery. It then snatched this delegation from under the noses of Sodexo, which was then responsible for this activity. Concluded for seven years, the contract could well end sooner than expected if we listen to Yann Guével, deputy in charge of finances. “Very quickly, we will propose to a project manager dedicated to this issue to get to work to examine an alternative in order to change before the end of the contract.” He indicates that he has met, with François Cuillandre, the boss of the company twice in the last few months. “The management has changed since the contract was signed in 2022, we are looking for solutions.”
Inflation, but not only
It must be said that today’s picture is not encouraging. The Brestmêm’ company has an operating deficit of €1.3 million “that inflation alone cannot justify. We are well aware that it has exploded since the signing, due to the war in Ukraine, concerning both food and fluids (water, gas and electricity). The central kitchen consumes a lot of it”. But for the deputy, it will be necessary above all to separate the wheat from the chaff by sorting out what is precisely due to inflation, which the community could compensate, and what is a kind of fool’s errand. “During the competitive bidding, two candidates presented us with their project. Elior’s offer was of very good quality and very efficient”, he recalls. Was the fact that it was “low” not “with the idea of winning this market?” asks Yann Guével, concluding: “If that is the case, it will have to take responsibility”. The elected official indicates that discussions are advanced with the company’s management, but that no definitive agreement has been reached. An analysis laconically “shared” by the mayor. The elected officials recall that the contract was to cover the end of this municipal mandate and the beginning of the next one: “It’s a heavy file, we wanted to give our successors time.”
A gargantuan menu
To this must be added the speech made beforehand by Émilie Kuchel, deputy in charge of local educational policy. “Still a lot of questions with our delegate on local and fresh supplies”, she sighed, with in a corner of her mind surely the assumed promotion of organic and short supply chains by the municipal team in place. And to put forward “a few figures to better understand what the canteen is in Brest: 6,500 meals per day (80% of children eat in the canteen) and 200 meals delivered to the home. A meal is 500 kg of fish, 800 kg of potatoes and 260 kg of bread. It is also more than €17, per meal and per child, of investment by the community for the lunch break”. The menu of the next public service delegation promises to be copious.
