A French charity organisation has delivered on an initiative aimed at bringing festive cheer to elderly people celebrating alone this year – through the gift of patisserie.
The Noël Étoilé campaign launched by the charity, Étoilés & Solidaires this month has united 50 bakeries in Paris, from which customers can buy a dessert for an isolated elderly person. The desserts are then distributed to elderly residents via delivery volunteers.
Marie Guillois, founder of Étoilés & Solidaires told news source Le Figaro that the gifted desserts would go to some 175,000 isolated elderly people in the capital.
This is not the first initiative Étoilés & Solidaires has launched a campaign during the health pandemic. At the start of France’s COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year, the charity launched Les chefs livrent nos aînés (chefs deliver to the elderly), partnering with Michelin-starred chefs to create meal boxes.
Chefs including Pierre Gagnaire, Guillaume Gomez, and Georges Blanc came up with meal plans using products donated by producers, which were then delivered by volunteers from Petits Frères des pauvres and le Centre d’action sociale de la ville de Paris.
In normal circumstances, the charity would hold monthly meals and cooking workshops for vulnerable elderly people, but say the health pandemic has made this impossible.
Other charities, which would normally host Christmas meals gathering together elderly people or the homeless over the festive season, have also had to innovate this year.
Le Secours catholique normally organises Christmas meals on five barges in Paris, which have been cancelled this year. Instead, chef Damien Duquesne planned gourmet meals, 10,000 of which have been delivered, distributed in centres, or given to homeless people on the street, along with Christmas gifts.
