The Court of Auditors Pins Restos du Coeur on its exceptional call for donations in 2023

Too much “alarmist”. In 2023, Restos du Coeur could have drawn more from their reserves rather than calling on the generosity of the French and the State to ensure its survival, the Court of Auditors said in a report published Thursday, June 19. The Association for Help for the Department could have “Mobilize more significantly” His “Precautionary reserves to absorb part of the vagaries” economic and social “Before soliciting the public competition and especially the support of the public authorities”they judge.

In September 2023, the Restos du Coeur had warned on their financial fragility and launched an exceptional call for donations. For the first time, the association founded by Coluche in 1985 was no longer able to face the influx of people presenting themselves, in a context of increase in operating costs due to inflation.

The projections carried out at the time by the restaurants of the heart, which reported “A potential cumulative deficit of 250 million euros over three years”,, “had an alarmist character due to excessively prudent hypotheses”According to the Court of Auditors. Gold, “It is on this basis that the public authorities have strengthened their aid”which, with the mobilization of donors, “has led to the maintenance of a comfortable level of reserves, corresponding to six months of operation”.

The Restos du Coeur, which distributed 163 million meals during the 2023-2024 campaign, estimate with AFP that “keep permanently” the funds necessary to “Several months of operation” is a matter of a “rigorous precaution”. “We must be able to continue to complete our commitment to people welcomed in periods of tension”defends the association. The Court of Auditors, which also underlines the good management of restaurants, recommends that the State “Ensure the calibration of the amount of subsidies to the association with regard to its precautionary reserves”.