In the North, the Oxelaëre restaurant has been welcoming private customers for two years. It serves as a canteen for the fifteen primary school children, a way to revitalize the town, and to serve the children less expensive, more balanced meals, and with local products.
It’s a moment always eagerly awaited by the students: the canteen. She is even more so when she is in a restaurant. It is at L’Estaminet Flamand, in Oxelaëre, that CM1 and CM2 students flock to have lunch. On the menu: mishmash of raw vegetables as a starter, the pet peeve of children. However, that’s the whole point, that of eating balanced dishes and local products. A choice of the town hall to bring back the trade in this commune of 518 souls. “We had been without a business in the town for 25 years, and we wanted to revitalize it. We said to ourselves that we could not do this without the participation of the children”says Stéphane Dieusart, DVD mayor of Oxelaëre.
A fixed income for restaurateurs
This allows restaurateurs to ensure a fixed income, four lunches a week, and children, plates that change daily. The chef’s recipes are validated by a dietician and by school children. A place that allows old and new generations to mingle. The meal costs 20 cents more to the parents, and to the town hall, for an annual budget of 5,000 euros. The key: a new impetus given to the village.
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