Three Thousand Won Lunch for Children

From March, the unit cost of a lunch offered to children will increase from the current 2,500 won to 3,000 won. In addition, a city-, county-, or district-wide “Committee to Offer Meals to Children” will be established with citizens as well as government officials on the committees in order to establish local systems for providing meals.

The government yesterday held a meeting presided by Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan to cover policies on state affairs and came up with a comprehensive measure for improving the quality of meals given to children. The new measure came in response to a scandal concerning “substandard lunches.”

Chief Social Welfare Coordinator Choi Kyung-su at the Office for Government Policy Coordination said, “Committees to Offer Meals to Children will pave the way for creating systems in which methods of meal service, quality, and eligibility will be left to local officials. The need for an extra budget of 86 billion won due to the increased unit cost will be met with money from state coffers, lottery funds, and local budgets that are deposited in special accounts and others.”

Moreover, the government decided to increase the number of state-assisted local child welfare facilities from 500 to 800 and to send cooking equipment to social welfare facilities, considering the fairly high quality of meal service at those places.

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com