A few thousand schoolchildren from households in need will start their school year with bags on the back filled with school effects provided by help organizations. However, they launch a warning: many others had to be left in plan, and the problem is increasing.
Back to school time has already struck for Francine Laplante. In the premises of a Mile-Ex warehouse, backpacks are arranged on the ground in the row of onions, rings with rings are stacked along a wall and pencil cases accumulate on the tables.
When the real school year will sound, around 3,200 primary and secondary students will extend backpacks that the founder of the star godmother project and her small army of volunteers will have filled with school supplies.
Francine Laplante disgusts the bargains, but she does not make magic: resources are simply not enough to meet the needs, which are constantly growing.
Photo Denis Germain, special collaboration
Volunteers are busy to prepare for school supplies for children who will need the starry godmother project to start the school year.
” This year [étant donné la demande]we could have gone to 5000 bags, ”she drops.
In 2022-2023, there were 500, the second, 1350, and the third, 2395.
Francine Laplante, founder of the starry godmother project
The observation is the same at Hop! The start of the school year, where the director general, Caroline Bernier, had to resign herself this year to impose quotas. “We do not provide on demand at all,” she decides without hesitation. It torn my heart to refuse, because obviously, we are limited by the budget. »»
“Everything has increased”
Since the stammering of the organization in 2018, demand has vitently climbed. Without being the only factor in question, the increase in immigration is not unrelated to this phenomenon. “It still plays a lot,” said Caroline Bernier, based on the echoes of her partners on the ground.
But that doesn’t explain everything. There are also “the new poor”, says Francine Laplante.
The new poor are those who work at wages at $ 23 an hour and who no longer arrive.
Francine Laplante, founder of the starry godmother project
“The public transport passes, the grocery basket, everything has increased exponentially,” she laments.
And if the pandemic has sometimes “wide back”, its collateral damage is still felt, adds Audrey Renaud, director general of the sharing group. The repeated increases in the key rate, for example, have plunged certain households into precarious situations.
“We have owners of houses who are now beneficiaries of the backpack operation,” she explains. Someone who went from 2 % to 6 % to the renewal of the mortgage, his payment has more than doubled. Not everyone has this “lousse” in their monthly budget. It had a major impact. »»
Twice as many bags
To the grouping either, we are not unemployed in anticipation of the start of the school year. “The demand has exploded for three years,” illustrates Mme Renaud.
This year, we give 11,000 bags, and in 2022, we were at 5,400. Historically, it was just in Montreal, but here, we extended all over the province.
Audrey Renaud, director general of the sharing grouping
Assistance requests should continue to multiply in the coming years, she worries, referring to a study published in January 2025 by Food Banks Quebec1 : The trajectory is linked since paying the grocery store comes before the purchase of pencils or erase to erase.
Photo Denis Germain, special collaboration
About 3,200 children will need a backpack prepared by the Francine Laplante team.
“If the trend is maintained, we know that in 2027, we must start to ration,” she warns.
Rating is what everyone wants to avoid at all costs.
Distribute 5000 backpack bags instead of the 3200 during assembly, very little for Francine Laplante.
“I want children to have sparks in the eyes,” she comes alive. What’s more beautiful than that, three boxes of new coloring pencils? What is more beautiful than that, a Spider-Man backpack or the little mermaid? »»
1. Read the article “The request for food aid will only increase”
