Half of the students in Brussels have trouble paying for groceries, according to a survey by the ULB (French-speaking University of Brussels).
The survey follows the news that a bill that would have allowed all students to eat a hot meal at lunch for just €1 was narrowly rejected by the National Assembly in France recently.
According to the Federation of Francophone Students (FEF), 90% of students believe that student life is too expensive in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
While prices remain high in many cafeterias in Brussels universities — with bagels, sandwiches or pasta meals costing upwards of €5 — some are making the effort to help those students struggling to afford to eat.
At the IHECS Haute École in Brussels, for example, the school's Social Council has introduced sandwiches for €2, covering the difference in cost price itself.
At the Alma campus of the UCL in Brussels, students can enjoy a hot meal for €3.60. But even this is too expensive for some. And at the ULB, to cope with the number of students struggling to afford food, they have temporarily set the price for all meals at €2.
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Many student organisations such as the Federation of Francophone Students (FEF) praise these efforts but call for more to be done.
While they realise that schools want to help, it is also increasingly clear they lack the funds to keep the initiatives going. Demonstrations to highlight their plight, like the one organised by the FEF in November 2022 during which 10,000 students signed a petition that was brought to the government, have not been ruled out.
The FEF also expects the government to take concrete measures that would allow the social services of schools to be budgeted so that they can set up these €2 meals.
