Jeonnam Province Provides Free Milk to Students in Rural and Island Areas

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced on the 15th that it will provide free school milk to 52,000 low-income students in rural and island areas this year, following the start of the new school year for all grades.

The school milk supply support project was initiated to improve the health of elementary, middle, and high school students from financially disadvantaged families and to address nutritional imbalances. It is a program that supplies white milk made from 100% raw milk (regular white milk, fortified milk, low-fat milk) for up to 250 days annually.

This year, the province plans to invest a total project cost of 5.6 billion KRW.

In particular, this year, to revitalize the stagnant dairy industry, Jeonnam Province has agreed with the Jeonnam Office of Education to expand the support target.

Last year, milk was supplied to schools with 200 or fewer students, but this year, the target has been expanded to include schools with up to 240 students.

Until now, sterilized milk was supplied to prevent gaps in milk supply for students who could not attend school due to COVID-19, but with the recent return of students of all grades to school, white milk can now be supplied.

Along with this, paid milk supply has also started, which is expected to help the dairy industry.

Park Dohwan, Director of Livestock Policy at Jeonnam Province, said, “We hope students strengthen their immunity and maintain their health with fresh milk,” and added, “We hope the school milk supply will help alleviate some of the difficulties faced by the dairy industry.”

Meanwhile, Jeonnam Province has invested 15.1 billion KRW over the past three years to supply free milk to 160,000 elementary, middle, and high school students at 886 schools within the province.

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