The powerful smell of cheese tickles the nostrils from the entrance to rue Didot. At 110, the La Cop1ne restaurant is crowded. It must be said that this Tuesday, January 21, it’s raclette, and it costs one euro. In the deep plates, potatoes topped with melted cheese, decorated with pickles, fried onions and pieces of fennel. The student solidarity association Cop1, which owns the restaurant, is organizing a meal that evening to “push” the vote on the law to make a 1 euro meal accessible to all students. Since 2020, scholarship and precarious students can already benefit from the measure when others pay 3.30 euros in the university restaurant. “If you are not on the stock market, that does not necessarily mean that you have a good financial situation”testifies Ayoub Elomary, 29 years old, international student in the final year of engineering school. He admits to regularly skipping lunch. He is not the only one. According to the annual Ifop barometer on the situation of students in France, in 2024, more than a third of young people have skipped “often or from time to time” a meal due to lack of money, seven points more than the national average. For JR a’Weng, general director of Cop1, the one-euro meal system must be generalized for all students: “Many do not feel legitimate. They sign up for our food distributions and want to leave, believing that others must be struggling even more.”
“I deprive myself of outings”
Eve Bodilis, 20, does not consider herself precarious, but says she is in favor of the measure. This is the first year that this information and communication student has received a scholarship and eaten regularly at Crous. “I do my shopping in discount stores like Lidl. Afterwards, we don’t make Michelin cuisine, laughed the young woman. Yesterday, for example, I ate toasted sandwich bread with harissa and lemon.” For her, the problem lies above all in the difficulty of cooking quality food. “We often eat pasta,” sighs the young woman, finding the approval of her table neighbors.
The evening allows us to raise awareness more generally about student precariousness. Banners are displayed against the glass walls of the room. On one, we can read, in huge “a quarter of students live on 50 euros per month after paying their bills”. Once he has eaten his share of raclette, Quentin, 25, begins a game of cards with three other students. If he is not on a scholarship, benefiting from a one-euro meal at the U restaurant would be for him «vital» while life is very expensive in Paris. “To eat, it’s at least 3 euros per steak, and you’re not just eating that…” deplores the one who is both a volunteer and a beneficiary of the Cop1 association. This doctoral student in legal history says he is under pressure from expenses, particularly transport. “My family lives far away. I deprive myself of going out, having lunch with friends and sometimes even going to see them,” deplores the young man.
Parliamentary niche
PS MP Fatiha Keloua-Hachi, who initiated the bill, is present. This Thursday, January 23, during the PS parliamentary niche, the deputies will vote on the text. Already presented to the Assembly in February 2023, the law was not passed by one vote. The Renaissance deputies opposed it, arguing a measure “unfair”. “The children of your friend Bernard Arnault will be able to go to Crous and only pay one euro”, had launched the Renaissance deputy Sylvain Maillard in the hemicycle. “To think that extending the meal to one euro would amount to giving to the richest is ignorance of the university system”replies Fatiha Keloua-Hachi. “Many students are in the gray zone and do not meet the scholarship criteria. Some are only precarious for three months of the year, for example, when it is cold and they have to bear additional heating costs.underlines JR a’Weng. Fatiha Keloua Hachi says she is confident about the adoption of the bill this time. This was voted by a majority in committee.
