For Christmas, solidarity farmer bakers send a ton and a half of flour to help migrants in Calais

Monday 23rd December 2024 11:43 AM

Solidarity peasant bakers from Lorraine are organizing to send off a convoy of aid to migrants on Monday, December 23. The aim is to help undocumented immigrants on French soil. For Christmas, they will transport a ton and a half of flour to Calais (North).

Company

From daily life to major issues, discover the subjects that make up local society, such as justice, education, health and family.

France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the “Society” newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy

Solidarity Lorraine peasant bakers are organizing to help undocumented immigrants and migrants alongside the Reducation network without borders (RESF). A convoy en route to the north of France left Monday December 23, 2024.

Christelle and Jean-Michel Matte are farmers-millers-bakers in Kingdomix (Meurthe-et-Moselle). They are at the head of an organic farm since 2002. They prepare the transport. A ton and a half of flour destined for Calais (North) for the Christmas holidays. “I am in the process of adjusting the weight of the bags. The flour is ground in the mill upstairs. The bags must weigh 25 kg, then we close them”says Christelle Matte.

A stamp on the bag for the expiration date and off you go. “Not everything has been ground here, it comes from several mills in Lorraine.” A little further on, upstairs, he shows us how the flour is prepared. “We have an Astrié type mill, a fixed stone and a mobile stone. The grain falls between the two stones. It is crushed and then passes through a rotating sieve”, says Jean-Michel Matte, farmer-baker.

This flour will be used by the International Bakery Mobilization (IBM). These are bakers who come from all over France and who maintain a permanent presence throughout the winter season in the North in Calais but also in Dunkirk.

Thanks to a mobile bakery in Calais, they make and bake the bread on site before distributing it.

L’IBM, the Mobilized International Bakeryis an international group of bakers who practice sourdough baking, with peasant flours and in wood-fired ovens. This network has existed since 2018.