Paris (France) (AFP) – Faced with “deepening roots” poverty, food banks are launching their 42nd annual donation drive on Friday, in a context of social discontent over purchasing power, for 2.4 million beneficiaries.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 10:24

For three days, until Sunday, the French are invited to leave essential food and hygiene products at the end of their shopping in the carts made available by the 128,000 volunteers in orange vests.

In total, nearly 9,000 collection points (stores, supermarkets, schools, town halls, and businesses) will be installed with the aim of collecting the equivalent of 20 million meals which will then be distributed to more than 6,000 associations.

The operation, usually organized on the last weekend of November, has for the first time been brought forward by three weeks to avoid competition from "Black Friday" and the first Christmas shopping.

“We had to get this solidarity collection out of this impasse at the end of November which is increasingly congested,” explains Jean-Louis Duprez, president of the French Federation of Food Banks (FFBA).

With this “socially committed end of the year” and “justified demands”, Jean-Louis Duprez notes the “resurgence of structural poverty which is taking root and spreading”. “We are welcoming more and more students, single-parent families, retirees and, for the last four or five years, poor workers,” he adds.

If the number of beneficiaries has been "stagnant" for two years, "we realize that people are coming more and more often to our associations", underlines Bernard Bonnes, vice-president of the FFBA.

Collection from the general public represents approximately 9% of the supply. The rest comes from products recovered from supermarkets, the agri-food industry and farmers, with the support of the State and the European Union.

© 2026 AFP

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