Restos du coeur focus on welcoming babies in Isère

Here we go (again) for the Restos du coeur, which are beginning their 40th winter campaign. With a somewhat regained capacity for action after the crisis last year. For the great good of the beneficiaries who will once again have 6 meals per week, compared to only 4 during the last season. An improvement which also allows Restaurants to focus on early childhood. In Isère, there has been a baby restaurant on rue Docteur Mazet since 1989, which welcomes children and their parents who are referred to it by the 6 “adult” distribution centers in the Grenoble metropolis.

Trying to break the chain of precariousness

Why this accent? Sylvie Hurrel, communications manager for Restos du coeur de l’Isère explains: “It is above all so as not to renew, so as not to prolong the precariousness of parents. It is said that it takes six generations to emerge from precariousness, so the emphasis is placed on early childhood to try to avoid the reproduction of poverty“Concretely the endowments”in hygiene products in particular“, are increasing, indicates Brigitte Cotte, responsible for the Restaurants in the heart of the Grenoble metropolis. This year, for example, diapers will be distributed up to 36 months and only up to 18 months as before. In Restaurants outside the metropolis these distributions are the responsibility of the “classic” relays but in Grenoble it is the unique competence of Resto Bébé An antenna which, in the longer term, must also undergo profound changes to better accommodate A project at 85,000 euros to develop the. the entrance, today without an airlock and with an impractical step for strollers, and then fit out the entire first floor, a level which is today used to store childcare clothing in conditions which are not ideal, and which should also make it possible to set up a play area and quieter rooms for listening and assistance beyond basic necessities, however, “only the first tranche is financed” explains Jean-Paul Cézard, the president of Restos en Isère, only the work planned on the ground floor.

Lots of distress and difficult stories

Because at the Resto Bébé the volunteers distribute small pots, diapers, milk, clothes and even some materials (bottles, strollers, beds) but they also want to help with administrative procedures and even, with the help of a psychologist and childcare worker, listen and give advice. Things that are almost impossible to do peacefully today in the “hive” of the noisy premises on rue Mazet. Because it is not enough to provide food to escape poverty. In 20 years of volunteering at Resto Bébé, Laurence Thomas, today co-manager of this relay, has seen “African families succeeding Roma families“, which themselves followed other migrations and more local audiences. But each time it was the vast majority of single women who presented themselves, in distress as much material as psychological. “There are in particularexplains Laurence Thomas, these African mothers who explain to me that they left other children there, these women who have companions in prison, or others who were abandoned as soon as they were pregnant“So much distress.”which I am lucky enough to be able to go out in the evening” explains this experienced volunteer, but the stories are heavy. And numerous: last year the Restos du coeur de l'Isère assisted a little more than 3,000 babies from 0 to 18 months.