Resto du coeur

The Resto du coeur (or more formally Restaurants of the Heart - Relay of the Heart ) are composed of a French national association and 113 departmental associations. Their goal is to distribute free food the most stripped to.

Origin

The humorist and actor Coluche launched the idea of the Resto du coeur the September 26th 1985. He declared: “I have an little idea, like that… If y' has people who are interested for sponsoriser a free canteen that one would start by making in Paris and then that one would spread out in the big cities of France.”

The first Restaurants open the December 21st and multiply in the country. The objective of the founders is to offer 200 000 meals per day. 8,5 million meal will be distributed this first winter. The initiative is supported by a song composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman. A television program makes it possible to collect several million francs.

In February 1986, Coluche pleads the cause of the Restaurants in front of the European Parliament after having noted that the surpluses are more expensive to store than to distribute free to the poor; he is heard and stocks are open in 1987 to four associations, of which Resto du coeur (and the food Banque cofondée in France by his/her friend the Abbé Pierre in 1984 with the French Croix-Rouge, and the Popular help French).

However, still in 2006, the question of the access to European stocks is not yet final, of the groups representing of the agro-alimentary companies and distributers having tried to make pressure with the World Trade organization, so that this redistribution is framed and limited, even removed European payment and catch of load by the national social budgets and local government agencies.

In fact, the quantity of the destroyed food surpluses again increased, to the great displeasure of charity associations for which the needs have made only grow for 20 years practically everywhere in Europe, at the same time as the public allocations were dried up more and more, or did not follow the constant evolution of the needs as much.

As, more as ever, the slogan “One counts on you” Restaurants remains of topicality.

Operation

Structure and organization

The Resto du coeur are composed of an national association and 113 departmental associations.

National association:

Founded by the humorist and actor Coluche in 1985, national association “the Restaurants of the Heart-Relay of the Heart” is a Association law of 1901. Recognized public utility, it aims to help the most stripped and to take part in the fight against social exclusion.

It is founding member of the “Committee of the professional ethics charter of the social organizations and humanitarians”, grouping of associations which was constituted in order to check their financial transparency. It is owner of the name and the logo “Restaurants of the Heart”, known as “resto du coeur”.

Each year, the general meeting elects a board of directors, which chooses among its members the President and the Office. Those implement in a collegial way the policy of the Restaurants defined by the board of directors while meeting each week. National association has the role:

to centralize the purchases and to supply the departments in foodstuffs
to incite the departments to engage in the assistance with insertion of their recipients and to bring to them for this purpose the technical support and financial aid necessary
to ensure the formation of voluntary the
to take care of the coherence of the messages thanks to the operations managers
to control and consolidate the accounts of departmental associations, to take care of their good performance and the compliance with the rules
to ensure the general communication of the restaurants.

Departmental antennas

113 departmental associations are distributed in 96 departments. Autonomous juridically, they function on the same principle as national association (General meetings, Boards of directors, Bureaux) and are bound to him by a contract of approval.

In all France, departmental associations manage, animate and coordinate the actions on the ground with 49000 voluntary in nearly 2000 Restos centers which accommodate approximately 700000 recipients each year. They have the role to implement all the activities of food aid, of assistance to lodging, assistance to insertion (such Gardens of the Heart), of cultural activities, places with life…

All these activities of assistance to insertion contribute to do those which one calls the recipients of people like everyone. Under this name of “assistance to the person and insertion” various types of activity line up today which go:

of the workshops to the gardens
of the trucks or the “petty thieving” in the big cities, with the solutions of longer-term lodging
of the cultural exit to the picnics.

Although food aid remains the most visible activity of the Restaurants, it does not make it possible it to only leave durably exclusion. From now on, the assistance with insertion is considered, with the restaurants, like priority.

The consultation “the Restaurants Tomorrow” which joined together in 1998 - 1999 more than 13000 recipients and voluntary (event of importance which had never taken place) confirmed this need for evolution and reinforced the will to go further in the partnership voluntary-recipients.

A preoccupation with a clearness

The resto du coeur are attentive with the good use of the funds placed at their disposal by the givers and the communities. Organization primarily financed by the givers and the communities and animated by the voluntary ones, the overheads are very reduced (approximately 8% of the resources), the superfluous expenditure are eliminated. The invitation to tender procedure makes it possible to obtain the best prices. Thus, more than 90% of the financial resources are devoted to the actions.

In accordance with the legislation, the accounts of association are aimed by a Auditor. The isolated drifts noted in some local groups were sanctioned or transmitted to Justice.

Voted in 1988, the Loi Coluche innovates while making it possible to the small givers (most) to profit from tax incentives up to that point reserved to the large givers. Its last version allows to the givers Resto du coeur to profit from a tax cut of 75% for a gift going up to 470 euros. Beyond that, and within the limit of 20% of the incomes, the reduction is of 66%. Each giver receives:

a tax receipt, with the back of which figure financial results approved by a Auditor;
the account of use of the resources which details the sums engaged by the Restaurants.

Association Restaurants of the Heart - Relay of the Heart is member of the Comité of the Charter to promote the gift in confidence, and to certify the transparency of its caritative activities and the good management and use of the gifts which it receives on behalf of the public.

Since 1987, the Resto du coeur profit from the “European Plan of assistance to most stripped” (PEAD). The organization worries about the threats which plane on the renewal of these funds, and on the access controls to the European agroalimentary surpluses now threatened.

During the control of association in 2003 by the Court of Auditors, although it could note in his official report the inadequacy of the initial structures to follow such a considerable growth of its activities, and although it suggests certain points to rationalize of them management (for example a larger professionalisation of certain key functions related to accountancy and the provisioning, and a better formation of voluntary able to ensure a control of the activities), it is not unaware of that the essence of its activities is carried out above all thanks to the vital support of its many voluntary, and that many efforts were made to improve the other points, and to garner the fruits experiment. “After an in-depth survey on the operations related to the production of the annual emission of promotion, the Court did not note any contestable financial flow. ” It also notes that the collection and overheads among are low noted for associations working in this field of social security, that if the overheads inevitably increased in volume over the studied period, they also were very appreciably reduced in rate. Consequently, it concluded and “notes for its part that the use of the funds collected near the public is in conformity, essentially, with the aims in view by the calls to its generosity. ”

Actors

Givers

There exist various types of givers:

of the children to the pensioners, the craftsmen to the multinationals, the mothers to the stars; they provide the surest support, each one with its manner
those which offer their services liberally (loan of buildings, transport, printing works…) or in the various authorized demonstrations
those take part which give money, by buying CD of the Dumbs, by bequeathing their good or by giving up their royalties
those which make gifts in kind (books, clothing, foodstuffs, products of hygiene…)

The demonstrations with the profit of the Restaurants are subjected to a legal and tax regulation very strict.

ARE PROHIBITED:

collections or sales on the public highway or in residence.
business transactions not having had the approval of the Resto du coeur.
the Mailing of financial prospections out those which emanate from the seat.

To promote its action near the public and to allow him to call upon the gift in confidence, the French section of the organization, as an association, adheres to the Comité of the Charter.

The voluntary ones

As of the first countryside of the Resto du coeur launched by Coluche in 1985, the voluntary ones were 5.000 to answer present. Today, they are more than 40.000, as different as possible, through all France with an essential common point: fidelity with this initial generosity, and this out of the political or religious authorities. Their action is based on the Charter of voluntary whose 6 points are guaranteeing good performance of association. To conclude their mission, a formation “house” makes it possible voluntary to acquire competences and the techniques necessary to their mission. A duet of tested professional trainers and the voluntary ones animate seminars where volunteers come from all the departments find themselves. Formations are installation in order to learn with:

to know to manage a center restaurants
to accommodate in a relay those which do not dare or do not want to go any more in an administration
to accompany those which require one supports moral
to help those which have difficulties in face the rents of the apartment that they finally obtained.
to be stimulating in a workshop or a garden of the heart.

The artists

Coluche knew it: the best engine than it could offer to the Restaurants, it was its own image and that of his/her friends. In one winter, it constituted around its idea a band of Enfoirés.

January 26th, 1986, Coluche animates an emission on a national chain, diffused all the afternoon: an exceptional plate joining together of the politicians of all edges, the organizers of all the chains of TV and radio, of the artists of all kinds and the sportsmen of all disciplines.

And since, each year, the concert of the Dumbs gathers and encourages voluntary Restaurants. It became a very popular media event. With each one of these occasions, the media report the action of the association and point out where one can address his gifts. The Dumbs express their support for association by giving up the benefit of the concerts and albums resulting from those.

With the great regret of the artists and volunteers engaged in the actions of the Restaurants, which was to be provisional while waiting for a perennial solution making it possible to suppress the rise of poverty, the Resto du coeur are today there to last, and the call to the generosity of the public is more than ever necessary, year after year.

Chronology of the Resto du coeur

1985 - 1986:

The September 26th 1985, Coluche, on the antennas of Europe 1, lance the idea: “ I have an little idea like that. So times y' have marks which are interested by sponsoriser a free canteen that one could start by making in Paris…, us one is ready to help a company as that which would make a restaurant which would have like ambition, at the beginning, to distribute 2000 to 3000 covered per day”. The resto du coeur had been born, and more than 5.000 voluntary this winter 8,5 million meal distributes.

1986 - 1987:

The second countryside starts without Coluche, missing in June 1986. As he had claimed with the the European Parliament in February 1986, the EEC opens its stocks. In province, autonomous associations are created. Fidélisées by a contract of approval, they will carry the names and logo: Resto du coeur.

6.000 voluntary distributes 11,5 million meal.

1987 - 1988:

At the end of the winter, the Restaurants decide to organize a “intercampagne” to continue to help poorest of the recipients during all the year.

7.300 voluntary distributes 22 million meal.

1988 - 1989:

The October 20th, the French Parliament votes unanimously the “Loi Coluche”: each person having made a gift, even modest, with an association, profits from a tax cut.

8.500 voluntary distributes 25 million meal.

1989 - 1990:

The Restaurants create the Relays of the Heart, which accompany and encourage the recipients in their steps of reintegration, and the Trucks of the Heart, which offer each evening of the hot meals to without shelters in the streets of Paris, and this, in spite of the creation of the Minimum wages of insertion.

10.200 voluntary distributes 26 million meal.

1990 - 1991:

The Restaurants sign a convention with the ministry for housing and launch the Roofs of the Heart, with an aim of helping with the lodging of people in the course of reintegration.

11.000 voluntary distributes 28 million meal.

1991 - 1992:

The Restaurants affirm that help with insertion is as important as food aid. They create the Workshops and the Gardens of the Heart where the recipients can find the reflexes of the social life as well as a know-how.

13.200 voluntary distributes 29 million meal.

1992 - 1993:

The Restaurants open in Val of Akor a house of holidays held by former recipients and a first social residence with Châtellerault, intended to lodge for 3 or 6 months of the people in the course of reintegration.

17.000 voluntary distributes 31 million meal.

1993 - 1994:

The first relays babies open: distribution of food adapted to the children of less than one year and councils with the new mothers.

20.000 voluntary distributes 36 million meal.

1994 - 1995:

Poverty increases. The Restaurants go further: Relays, Gardens and Roofs of the Heart multiply everywhere in France.

25.000 voluntary distributes 75 million meal.

1995 - 1996:

The Restaurants inaugurate the Péniche of the Heart, moored Quai of Austerlitz with Paris, which accommodates 70 people without residence with an aim of reintegration, for one duration going from two weeks to three months of lodging, like 3 social residences with Poissy, with the Mans and with Dijon.

25.000 voluntary distributes 50 million meal.

1996 - 1997:

The Restaurants multiply the draft aid programmes to insertion. Opening of a social residence with Chabanais.

31.000 voluntary distributes 61 million meal.

1997 - 1998:

The Restaurants open their first KEY workshops (Communication, Lecture, Écriture) of fight against illiteracy like two social residences with Montbard and Toulon.

35.000 voluntary distributes 59 million meal.

1998 - 1999:

Within the Restaurants is held a vast consultation “the Restaurants tomorrow”. Organized in all France, it joins together more than 13.000 people (voluntary and profit) around animated debates on their common future. These meetings thousand and one leave interrogations and an obviousness: it is time “to distribute” food aid differently and to improve listening and the dialog.

40.000 voluntary distributes 60 million meal.

1999 - 2000:

The Restaurants are 15 years old.

Thanks to the consultation “the Restaurants tomorrow”, food aid evolves/moves by packing the choice and the quality of the distributed products. Thus the voluntary ones and the recipients take more time to dialog and walk some of the way a bit of a walk together.

40.000 voluntary distributes 55 million meal.

2003 - 2004:

43.000 voluntary distributes 66,5 million meal with spirit.

2005 - 2006:

48.000 voluntary accommodated 670.000 people and was used 75 million as meal in 1.900 centers or appendices.

Restaurants abroad

Belgium: 1986

In Belgium, there exist 16 Restaurants (12 in Wallonia, 2 in Flanders and 2 with Brussels). The first of them is opened with Liege by Coluche, on February 22nd, 1986. Immediately, it is decided to open all the year and, like elsewhere, the service offered is quickly exceeded.

Currently, the Belgian Federation offers also various services (social, legal, reintegration,…) and assistances (administrative, financial, medical, housing,…).

Germany: 1997

For ten years, one has been able to also find Restoring of Herzens in Germany, namely with Erfurt and Leipzig.

In Erfurt, a cultural program with theater and music and even a Father Christmas for the children. In 2004, the reduction in the gifts resulted in a reduction from the opening hours.

In Leipzig, the recipients must pay 50 centimes per meal because if not the distribution of meal would be impossible to finance. On the other hand, a free shuttle leading people of the central station to the restaurant was installation.

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