© Action contre la Faim
Our intervention in PACA region
Faced with increasing precariousness and inequality, non-use and barriers to access to rights and food, Action Against Hunger has launched its intervention in France in 2019 and in Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur in 2020.
Its guiding principle: to make its humanitarian expertise available to those involved in helping the most precarious people, and to act alongside them to aim for operational and structural change.
The city of Marseille has one of the highest poverty rates in mainland France. For years, Marseille has been infamous for its poor housing crisis, with almost 40,000 substandard dwellings. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a worsening of poverty and precariousness, and considerably impacted access to the most essential needs of the Marseilles population, such as access to food and health, including mental health.
In this context, Action Against Hunger initiated its interventions in the Marseilles area in April 2020, with 28 local associative and citizen actors (Restos du Cœur, Médecins du Monde, Secours catholique, various citizen actors, etc…), via support in the distribution of hygiene products, awareness-raising on Covid-19, information/orientation to basic services.
Action Against Hunger, in one of its field surveys in 2020, pointed out that, although 61% of families surveyed in the 3rd and 15th arrondissements in Marseille benefited from food aid, 8% of them were in a situation of severe hunger and 37% of moderate hunger. 64% said they had difficulty contacting social services.
Action Against Hunger has been working in Marseille for over 3 years, in collaboration with a number of emergency social services, to better cover the essential needs, including food, of people who are the furthest from services. By acting on the barriers to access to food, in a multi-sectoral approach, Action Against Hunger aims to bring about changes at the levels of field actions, territories and local and national public policies.
© Action contre la Faim
© Action contre la Faim
© Action contre la Faim
Our actions
- Working in the field with our partners and documenting barriers to access to food:
Action Against Hunger goes out to meet the people supported by the associations in order to get to know them better and understand the constraints they face in covering their basic needs and accessing their essential rights. Through field surveys, Action Against Hunger asks the people supported by the associations about their practices and their food security, their health, their well-being, their access to information and their rights, etc. Thanks to these surveys, Action Against Hunger is able to draw up findings and operational recommendations with its partner associations.
Thanks to these surveys, Action Against Hunger supports its partners in the development of their operational strategy and the implementation of recommendations, by sharing its expertise, in order to act on barriers to access to essential services and rights, including food, via its Resource Center in Marseille, which has supported more than 20 projects since 2020.
- Developing and co-constructing learning projects with other solidarity actors :
Action Against Hunger teams up with other actors in the field and in research to co-construct pilot projects, test and document new aid methods better suited to the most precarious populations, and feed into changes in public policy. A good example of this is the territorial project to combat non-use of food services and promote access to sustainable food, built in phase 1 with Restos du Cœur and in phase 2 with the Centre Communal d’Action Social. It documents the problem of non-use of services, including food services, in this arrondissement, while testing a new method of territorial cooperation and response through the implementation of an individualized monetary transfer combined with social support.
- Support collective and regional reflection and action:
In conjunction with its partners, Action Against Hunger participates in various forums for exchange (co-leadership in 2022 of working group 5 of the poverty strategy, participation in the 3rd arrondissement rights access collective, etc.), coordination (support and participation in food aid coordination led by the Direction Départementale de l’Emploi, du Travail et des Solidarités). Action Against Hunger facilitates the exchange of expertise and best practices between players involved in access to food, and co-produces and/or shares multi-actor studies on the issues of precariousness, access to rights and access to food, as part of the ISSimars operational research project (Itineraries and living conditions in a squat in Marseille).
- Nourishing public policies and co-constructing advocacy actions for access to sustainable food for all:
Action Against Hunger disseminates studies to gain a better understanding of needs and barriers to access to food, and co-constructs proposals to change operational practices and public policies so that France can guarantee access to healthy, sustainable, quality food for all. In Marseille, Action Against Hunger is a member of the steering committee of the ALERTE PACA advocacy group and of the Observatoire de l’Hébergement 13.
Our partners
Médecins du Monde, la Fondation Abbé Pierre, Les Restos du Cœur, Les Paniers Marseillais, L’AMAP de Provence, La Fondation Armée du Salut, le collectif Territoires à VivreS, la Cité de l’Agriculture, l’Association des Usagers de la PADA, The Truth, SOS Méditerranée, Paroles Vives, l’URIOPSS.
Project examples
ISSimars : Itineraries and living conditions in a squat in Marseille
The ALERTE PACA collective, of which Action Against Hunger is a member, has published a report entitled “Vivre en Squat: une fatalité à Marseille?” (Living in a squat: a fatality in Marseille?) to raise awareness of another reality of ultra-precariousness and homelessness in Marseille: living in squats, and to alert public authorities to the situation of these people and the solutions to be put in place.
This multi-actor exploratory operational research project focuses on the life paths and living conditions of people living in “informal”, “subjugated” and often “controlled” living quarters in Marseille, “untitled. es”, who for the most part pay rent without knowing whether it actually belongs to the owner, in run-down apartments in large private condominiums, large social housing estates, and scattered apartments in the city, in other words a set of situations referred to as “squats”.
This project, which is currently under construction, is the result of a joint desire by institutional players, associations working in the field, the people concerned, citizens’ groups and researchers to document the lives and living conditions of people living in squats in Marseille. The aim is to pool knowledge and improve the provision of shelter and/or access to decent accommodation for people living in squats in Marseille.
Combating non-use of food aid in the 15th arrondissement
With a poverty rate of 44%, the 15th arrondissement is home to a particularly vulnerable population. The problem of poor housing (run-down condominiums, informal housing, squats, and slum) is notorious. Like the northern districts in general, the 15th arrondissement is home to a large proportion of the people served by Restos du Cœur, the main provider of food aid in the district. 3 centers are located here: in Aygalades, La Cabucelle and near Parc Kalliste.
Action Against Hunger is helping Restos du Cœur and other project partners to better understand and document the problem of food insecurity, to combat non-use of food aid, and to increase, adapt and diversify the area’s food supply. A partnership with the CCAS also aims to boost inter-actor territorial cooperation, in order to help identify the people furthest from services, and to test a new method of individualized cash transfer, combined with social support.
« Territoires à VivreS » project: sustainable produce sourcing for social grocery stores
Territoires à VivreS is a national experiment in dignified access to sustainable food, led by a group of associations. Action Against Hunger is taking part in this initiative in the Aix-Marseille region, contributing to the development and structuring of the supply of local dry and market produce to 5 social grocery stores.
In 2022, Action Against Hunger carried out a diagnostic study of their customers’ food situation, supply preferences and purchasing capacity, to enable local suppliers to adapt their production and sales prices while guaranteeing fair remuneration. This has made it possible to launch supplies of dry produce and vegetables in the second half of 2022.
Dispositif DADA – Food in 115 hotels
“Dispositif Alimenter D’Abord” (DADA) is a group of associations founded by MAAVAR Marseille (NOGA social restaurant), the Fondation de l’Armée du Salut (FADS) and SARA LOGISOL, operating with the support of the DDETS and the participation/animation of URIOPSS, Action Against Hunger and the ASSAB project. The aim of this group is to promote access to food for certain households housed in hotels by the 115. In 2021, Action Against Hunger carried out a diagnostic of the experiment to better identify the food needs of people accommodated in hotels, and to identify ways of optimizing the scheme. In 2022, a number of players joined the collective, offering other forms of assistance (Cuisine 101 du Bouillon de Noailles, Table de Cana, Coco Velten, les coursiers solidaires, la Cantina, Marmite Joyeuse, etc.). Action Against Hunger supports the operational coordination of the scheme.
Key figures
More than 80 partners reached by emergency actions during the confinements, in all the city’s priority districts, mainly in the 3rd, 15th, 14th, 13th and 16th arrondissements. Over 13,000 hygiene kits distributed during the crisis, reaching over 6,000 people during the first lockdown and over 13,000 people during the second.
Since 2021 :
- More than 45 partners supported and/or involved in co-constructed projects, involved in food aid, access to sustainable food, access to healthcare, rights, housing, legal support, integration workcamps, etc.
- Nearly 20 projects supported
- Nearly 8,000 people, the public supported by our partners, indirectly impacted by our actions.
- More than 15 restitutions of work carried out by Action Against Hunger in Marseille
- More than 200 employees and/or volunteers trained
- Nearly 300 emergency hygiene kits distributed, reaching over 600 people.
