History
Winter of 1954 was extremely cold and snowy in France, a difficult blow to France less than 10 years after the Second World War. Henri Grouès, or better known as l’Abbé Pierre, in 1949 founded an organization to help construct homes, and when he saw homeless people dying in the street in 1954 made a moving speech to rally the French into action to help them.
Following the failure of the projected law on lodgings, and his well-remembered speech on Radio Luxembourg on 1 February 1954, he asked Le Figaro, a conservative newspaper which, as he said, was read by "the powerful", to publish his call. The next morning his organization Emmaus reported receiving 500 million francs, an incredibly large sum for the time and an outpouring of generosity for the poor. (via)
Popularity
Abbé Pierre's name is inscribed all over France and you can find his name engraved in our town as well. Facilities to help house and feed the poor were created throughout the country, and we have been volunteering some with church friends at one here in town.
Ripple-effect
Another organization was founded in 1985 with the similar idea in mind, to help feed the poor and homeless, an organization called "Les Restaurants du Coeur." Quite a popular charity organization that has attracted the generosity and participation of famous French people, musicians, soccer players (e.g. Zidane), politicians, movie stars, etc. Many of them can be seen singing in the theme song for the organization (below).
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