For the second year running, hundreds of volunteers across Paris and its suburbs joined the 'Iftaar for All' campaign to hand out free food to people in need to mark the Muslim month of Ramadan. As inflation and precarity tip more people into poverty, charities say they’re seeing a rise in the number of people seeking help.
“People don’t see us. It’s like we’re invisible. If it wasn’t for food parcels, I’d die of hunger,” said Nelly, a well-dressed, middle-aged woman, who chanced upon one of the ten Iftaar for All stands delivering food to people in need in and around Paris.
It was a biting cold evening in Paris and Nelly was walking towards the spot where she usually picks up free warm milk when she saw a table heaped with food parcels, which volunteers from the charity Muslim Hands were handing out behind the posh Printemps department store.
“Food assistance is vital for us,” Nelly said. “In my case, I have only 10 euros for the next 10 days until the end of the month.”
She is one of thousands of people in Paris and its suburbs who received food parcels, or a warm meal, during the one-day Iftaar for All event organised by Hmarket supermarket and six French charities on 28 March.
Food for all
It was the second edition of Iftaar for All, a yearly event aiming to distribute food to all people in need – not only Muslims – during the month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast during the day.
Ramadan, a lunar month, this year began on 11 March and runs until 9 or 10 April.
Iftaar, or f'tour, is the time at sunset when they break their fast. Charitable initiatives are common during that month, when sharing is as important as fasting.
Born out of a brainstorming at Hmarket headquarters during last year’s Ramadan, the project was set up in two weeks and promptly gathered the support of four charities Hmarket works with all year round.
“We believe it is important to join forces so as to create a greater impact on the ground,” says Attika Trabelsi, Hmarket’s communications and marketing manager. “It seemed important to build bridges and help people connect who otherwise wouldn’t.”
Last year’s Iftaar for all enabled Muslim Hands and Amatullah to work together in Morocco following the devastating earthquake in September.
This year, the team included the Paris Central Mosque, local charities G Huit and O Coeur de la Rue, and three French NGOs that operate internationally: LIFE, Muslim Hands and Amatullah.
“We wanted to join them again this year because even though each of us is involved in food security all year round, such an event places a spotlight on what we do and helps us reach out to a larger number of people,” said Imad Bentayeb, LIFE’s country coordinator for France, Morocco and Palestine.
Rising needs
The first edition saw volunteers hand out 3,000 food parcels in five locations. This year, 3,500 food parcels were distributed in 10 different areas across Paris and neighbouring suburbs Nanterre and Aulnay-sous-Bois.
“We gave out 350 parcels in less than an hour and a half. I was surprised it went so fast, especially when there were hot meals distributed only a few metres away by [another food charity] La Soupe Saint-Eustache,” said Matthieu Jeuland, property manager at Hmarket, who was volunteering near Les Halles commercial centre in the centre of Paris.
Need for food assistance is increasing in France. According to the independent Inequality Observatory, 5.3 million people – 8 percent of the population – lived below the poverty line in France in 2023, a rate that has been rising steadily since the mid-2000s.
“We operate in 19 developing countries and used to carry out actions in France occasionally. But we had to open an office here because living conditions took such a hard blow after the Covid pandemic. Inflation is ever increasing and people have difficulties making ends meet,” said Bentayeb.
'#Iftaar for all' event already started with Yassine Hattay👇🏼 at @MuslimHandsFr busy packing vans with food parcels to be delivered at sunset - time of #ftour - today, 28 March, to people in need
— zeenat hansrod (@zxnt) March 28, 2024
Volunteers will join them at #GareduNord & #GareSaintLazare in Paris
🎥: AlmamySylla pic.twitter.com/UFgovHPtKp
Almamy Sylla, marketing and communications manager at Muslim Hands France, said they too had seen a shift.
“We provide assistance all year round and we’ve noticed a steadily rising number of people who need us,” he said. “We often come across some families who – from the outside – do not appear to be facing difficult circumstances.”
Hidden poverty
According to Nelly, who is homeless, there is no one type of person living in poverty: “They are of all ages, all social backgrounds, foraging for food in bins.”
Appearances are often deceptive. Nelly, like many who collected the food handouts, does not wear ragged clothes and is not dirty or gaunt. She seems put together, yet does not know where the next meal is coming from or where she’ll sleep tonight.
“Dignity, reticence, shame, pride stop us from begging,” she says. “Some people will wait towards the end to walk up and ask for food parcels.”
As she spoke, she shared a cream puff with a young volunteer, Yanele. Aged seven, she told RFI she was eager to come volunteering again.
“I am relieved to see that there is a new generation who will continue what we’ve started,” said Malia, who volunteers for LIFE in its kitchen. “We had 50 mums who came to help us last year and over 80 women this year, most of whom are students.”
First-time volunteers
Both editions of the initiative gathered around 350 volunteers, but this year, over a hundred of them were helping Iftaar for All for the first time.
Some having never participated in such activities before. The charity O Coeur de la Rue said it even enrolled five new volunteers.
Sirine, a 25-year-old who works in digital communications, is a first-time volunteer with Muslim Hands and Iftaar for All but helps out twice a week with Restos du Coeur, a French organisation providing food assistance.
“I feel as if the people we are trying to help give us much more than we give them,” she told RFI.
“It’s such a fast-moving world and we’re fuelled by the need to acquire as many apps, or what not, to stay connected to the wider world. Yet in real life, I think we’re pretty isolated.
“On the other hand, the rough sleepers I meet, who have none of those tools and are facing a tough reality, are capable of kindness we’ve probably never shown to others.”
In #Nanterre, east of #Paris, volunteers at @LIFEONGfr are busy preparing hot meals for today's '#Iftaar for all' event regrouping 6 NGOs & Hmarket supermarket#Food will be delivered in 3 areas in Nanterre by @LIFEONGfr
— zeenat hansrod (@zxnt) March 28, 2024
And, elsewhere in #Paris & #Aulnay by others
🎥by #Hmarket pic.twitter.com/FdM33GMEQ5
Another volunteer, Rabia, said that helping people in need broadens her perspective.
“I was surprised to see young delivery bike or scooter riders, wondering what they are doing at the stand. Then I remembered an article describing how they are struggling,” she said.
Saif Thabet, an Instagram content creator who covered the Iftaar for All event, told RFI it got an enthusiastic response from his followers.
“Most of them said they wish they’d known sooner so that they could join in, and they liked that it was an operation open to all and not sectarian at all,” he said.
Melissa Nedjam, a quality manager at Hmarket who helped distribute food in Paris, reflected: “I will go to bed thinking that I have been useful today.”
