330,000 Students in Chungnam Region Receive Benefits of 'Eco-Friendly and Free School Meals'

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Starting this year, 330,000 students in the Chungnam region will receive benefits from eco-friendly and free school meals.

Chungnam Province announced on the 14th that it has finalized the '2020 School Meal Food Cost Support Plan' and will implement it from the new semester.

The support plan involves investing 135.4 billion KRW for free meal food costs and 27.9 billion KRW for eco-friendly food costs, aiming to improve the quality of meals at local schools and reduce educational expenses for parents.

The beneficiaries are approximately 333,000 children attending daycare centers, kindergartens, elementary, middle, high schools, and special schools located in 15 cities and counties within the province. The annual number of meal days is based on one meal per day: 220 days for standalone and private kindergartens, 190 days for attached kindergartens, with a support unit cost of 1,740 KRW.

Additionally, free meals for elementary, middle, high, and special schools are set at 190 days per year for one meal per day, with food unit costs ranging from 2,266 KRW to 3,483 KRW. Eco-friendly ingredients added on top will be supported up to 220 days per year at 290 KRW to 570 KRW per meal.

The province plans to complete the system this year so that all students and children can receive eco-friendly and free school meals through the food cost support.

Previously, since last year, the province has fully implemented eco-friendly and free school meals for 267,207 students across 1,227 schools regardless of school type, including national, public, and private schools. The budget invested for this was approximately 154.2 billion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.