1.69 Million Elementary, Middle, and High School Students in Gyeonggi-do to Receive Food Ingredient Packages and Coupons Worth 100,000 Won

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province, Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, and 31 cities and counties in the province will provide unused school meal budgets (for March to May) due to COVID-19 as food ingredient packages worth about 100,000 KRW per student and mobile gift certificates.

Gyeonggi Province, Gyeonggi Office of Education, Gyeonggi Provincial Council, Gyeonggi Mayors and Governors Association, and Gyeonggi City and County Council Chairpersons Association agreed on the 19th to ease the increased burden on parents caused by school meal suspension due to delayed school openings and online classes, and to resolve difficulties faced by eco-friendly farmers and suppliers.

The unused school meal expenses from March to May amount to a total of 170 billion KRW, including 87.9 billion KRW from the Office of Education, 23.5 billion KRW from Gyeonggi Province, and 58.6 billion KRW from cities and counties. This is enough for about 1.69 million elementary, middle, and high school students in the province to receive 100,000 KRW each.

The province, the Office of Education, and other institutions decided to support 100,000 KRW per student, providing 50,000 KRW in food ingredient packages and 50,000 KRW in gift certificates to maintain the school meal operation system and guarantee parents' choice.

Among the cities and counties, those that have already supported students through emergency care budgets or are not participating in the food package and mobile gift certificate support may have slight differences in the support amount.

For the food ingredient packages, schools will autonomously decide the composition and delivery methods of the packages, reflecting the opinions of school members, targeting agricultural, livestock, fishery, and processed products.

The mobile gift certificates are being prepared so that parents can purchase food ingredients such as rice, meat, seafood, and processed foods according to their preferences through Nonghyup Mall (www.nonghyupmall.com).

Purchases other than food ingredients will be restricted, and efforts will be made to include agricultural, livestock, and fishery products from Gyeonggi Province.

Accordingly, each school will hold a school operation committee meeting within this month to decide on the composition and delivery methods of the food ingredient packages and contract signing for mobile gift certificate purchases, then deliver the food ingredient packages and mobile gift certificates to students' homes.

This project is expected to maintain the existing school meal system to secure stable jobs for related workers, while also contributing to the creation of 13,000 short-term jobs related to logistics and delivery of food ingredient packages and jobs created through mobile gift certificate support.

A provincial official stated, "Providing food ingredient packages and online mobile gift certificate support is a project that can help all school meal stakeholders, including producers who are struggling due to COVID-19, and we will ensure smooth implementation so that it is well delivered to each household."

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