Annecy. Senior restaurants will remain closed until February 11
For the past few weeks, the six senior restaurants in Annecy, reserved for retirees over 60, have no longer been welcoming guests. Their closure had been initially announced until February 4, but it was finally extended until the 11th, the date of the school holidays. The restaurants will reopen on Monday February 14.
The reason for this service interruption? The fifteen municipal agents assigned to restaurants had to be reversed in central kitchens, nursing homes and schools, decimated by the Covid-19 epidemic. “Out of 120 agents who distribute meals, 35 to 40 are absent”, specifies Marc Soulier, the director of municipal catering.
A quarter or even a third of the workforce is missing every day. Enough to create an unbearable tension in the big machine which produces and distributes some 10,000 meals every day: 6,000 for schoolchildren and 4,000 for establishments for the elderly.
According to Marc Soulier, around 140 seniors are impacted by these closures, an average that varies from day to day. The decision provoked inevitable protests, including that of J., a retiree from Annecy-le-Vieux who took up the pen to write to the editorial staff of Dauphiné Libéré.
“It is shameful, in the middle of winter, to close these structures to seniors. Many are lonely and helpless men, it was their only place to warm their hearts,” she observes.
This user of La Cozna regrets in passing the heavy restrictions that guests have been subjected to since the health crisis: “distancing at the level of the tables, common menu for all, reservation 48 hours in advance. We wonder if our municipality does not want to close definitely those restaurants that were too attractive for seniors,” she quips.
For Marc Soulier, “if we close the restaurants, it’s really reluctantly”. He hopes that after the holidays, the announced reduction in the epidemic will allow a return to normal.