Seocho-gu Provides 'Holiday Food' to Single-Person Households Including Youth and Gosiwon Residents for Lunar New Year

On the 8th, holiday meals were delivered to 400 single-person households including youth and middle-aged residents of gosiwon... For middle-aged single-person households living in gosiwon, Dong welfare planners personally delivered and checked on their well-being

A young man receiving a food kit at Honsikdang

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seocho 1-Person Household Support Center is launching the ‘Honbap Project’ in full swing for single-person households who have to spend the holidays alone.

Seocho 1-Person Household Support Center (hereinafter the Center) is a welfare institution established by Seocho-gu, the first local government in the country, to provide safety, care, and convenience services for single-person households.

On the 8th, the Center will provide a hearty meal like a gift to a total of 400 vulnerable single-person households, including young adults and middle-aged people living in goshiwons. Reflecting feedback from ‘Honsikdang,’ a restaurant selected last November as a place convenient for eating alone, and opinions from single-person household SNS, dumplings were added to offer a generous tteok-mandu-guk (rice cake and dumpling soup) and jeon (Korean pancakes), conveying the warmth of a mother’s home-cooked meal.

In particular, for middle-aged single-person households living in local goshiwons, welfare planners from the district personally deliver the meals and check on their well-being. General single-person households can receive their meals at designated restaurants ‘Honsikdang’ located in Jamwon-dong, Bangbae-dong, and Yangjae-dong through online applications.

There is a good reason why the district is taking care of meals for single-person households. Seocho-gu has 59,621 single-person households, accounting for 34.3% of the total 173,502 households.

Single-person households make up about one-third of all households. However, a significant number of these single-person households are not able to have meals on time. In fact, in the ‘Seocho Middle-aged Single-person Household Survey’ conducted last month, respondents cited health issues and irregular eating habits as their biggest concerns.

Accordingly, the Center also provided great support by offering Chuseok holiday lunch boxes and home-stay kits, four types of side dishes (including bulgogi and rolled omelet), Christmas commemorative cookies and special side dish sets, and year-end tteokguk and jeon to about 400 young and middle-aged single-person households during last Chuseok and year-end.

With the prolonged COVID-19 situation leading to longer stays at home, the demand for ‘home-cooked meals’ has naturally increased. This is to deliver the warmth of home-cooked meals to single-person households who are prone to rely on instant foods like cup noodles, helping them spend the especially cold year-end more warmly.

Along with this, to make the Lunar New Year holiday special even at home, a three-session participatory untact program called ‘1-Person Household Together Haso’ has been prepared.

▲ Making holiday money envelopes for parents using calligraphy ▲ Making cowhide mask straps ▲ Making beef yukjeon (pan-fried beef slices) ? all themed around the ox, these diverse untact programs will be offered as participatory online classes using ‘ZOOM.’

For detailed inquiries and support applications for the ‘Honbap Project,’ visit the Seocho 1-Person Household Support Center website. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Cho Sung-deok, Head of the Child and Youth Division, said, “The Honbap Project was started to alleviate nutritional imbalance and psychological hunger among single-person households, and we will bring warm home-cooked meals on special days.” He added, “We plan to expand customized services to respect the increasing diversity of single-person household lives each year and to prevent vulnerability caused by loneliness and social disconnection.”

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