Serving the most vulnerable: Philippe Cholet, President of the Association, tells us more…
“Our association is the result of the merger of two other organizations committed to fighting exclusion:
Le Fourneau Économique, which, continuing the work of Jeanne-Antide Thouret, provided meals to people in extreme poverty, and a more recent organization: the Day Center, a promoter of what are known as “welcoming centers,” which aim to offer shelter, a listening ear, and daily services to those who are homeless.
It is called Boutique to signify its openness to all and Jeanne-Antide to commemorate the work she began in Besançon in 1801 serving the poorest, whose “voices she had heard.”
This coalition, designed to enable us to work more effectively together, has also brought together actors from diverse backgrounds, allowing us to combine charity and solidarity in our work, addressing distress at its source, and promoting a convergence of values dedicated to the well-being of the poorest members of our community. Thus, our association fulfills a social restoration function, and we recognize that while access to food is important, it also aims to restore the human person through the bonds that define them—especially when those bonds are failing and the prevailing sentiment is to blame the poor for being poor and to stigmatize those who have fallen by the wayside.Every day, 365 days a year, we open two day centers and social dining facilities:
one for the homeless and another specifically for families with children, women, and people in vulnerable situations. Compassionate listening—which can also be demanding—is combined with daily services—coffee, showers, laundry, and luggage storage—to combat the hell of life on the streets and help people rediscover their will to live and their hopes for the future.
Our association also manages a reception center for unaccompanied minors referred by departmental services. Thirty staff members and volunteers carry out this humble yet essential work, listening to and treating others with respect as full members of the community.
In 2024, at our shelter for people without a fixed address, 31,043 meals were served, 16,425 breakfasts, 2,190 laundry service visits, 3,285 shower visits, and over 1,100 medical consultations in collaboration with the ARS (Regional Health Agency), not to mention all the activities and group initiatives aimed at restoring self-esteem (cooking workshops, sports, culture, etc.).Our work, which receives public funding, is part of a diverse partnership that seeks to work more effectively together and contribute to specific public policies.
Looking back, our secular association finds an echo in the work initiated by Jeanne-Antide Thouret, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity, whose bicentennial of her death will be celebrated in 2026.
She fought tenaciously, mobilizing all her energy to make the voices of the poor heard—what others, such as Dom Helder Camara, in a different era, called “the preferential option for the poor.”
Boutique Jeanne-Antide,
rue Champrond,
quartier Battant à Besançon
Poor people’s meal, preceded by the first “soup” distributed to the poor in this neighborhood by Jeanne-Antide in May 1801, at 37 Rue Battant.
With humility and determination, we follow in the footsteps of Jeanne-Antide and continue on this path.”Philippe Cholet
President of the Jeanne Antide Boutique
