Hope Meal Voucher Unable to Buy Water... Efforts to Expand Meal Replacement Menu Items Underway

Decision to Review Expansion of Instant Rice and Side Dish Items
Frequent Complaints Due to Item Identification and Early Sold-Outs
Purchase of '70,000 Won Fruit Basket' Also Occurs... Considering 40,000 Won Price Limit

A convenience store in downtown Seoul (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The range of items that can be purchased with the ‘Hope Meal Voucher,’ provided to students attending remote classes to enable them to have meals at convenience stores, will be expanded. It is expected that the items will be broadened to include meal replacement items such as bottled water, instant rice, side dishes, drinkable yogurt, and boiled eggs, which were previously excluded from the list of purchasable items.

On the 27th, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it will hold an expert advisory committee meeting soon to review the addition of purchasable items for the Hope Meal Voucher. A representative from the Office of Education said, "We plan to broadly expand the items to be mainly meal replacement products that can be allowed as substitutes for school meals," adding, "Expanding meal replacement items will also help solve the problem of items being out of stock and unavailable for purchase."

However, only items that meet nutritional standards in line with the purpose of meal replacement will be allowed. Currently, the nutritional standards for lunch boxes that can be purchased with the Hope Meal Voucher are set at 990 kcal or less, sodium within 1067 mg, and protein of 11.7 g or more. The currently purchasable items include white milk, soy milk, vegetable sandwiches, fruit and vegetable juices, salads, spoonable yogurt, smoked eggs, and gimbap.

The Hope Meal Voucher is provided at 100,000 KRW per student who does not attend school daily and is valid for use until July 16. However, less than a week after implementation, complaints about difficulties in confirming purchasable items and early sell-outs of available items have been continuous. On online communities, photos of purchasable items by convenience store are shared.

A parent of an elementary school student lamented, "Even after going to several convenience stores, most items are sold out, maybe due to hoarding, and there is nothing available to buy at night." Another parent said, "I went around convenience stores trying to buy yogurt, but I heard it was sold out in the morning," adding, "It has come to the point where we have to do an open run timed with the delivery of convenience store goods." Over 500 people agreed to a petition on the Office of Education’s citizen suggestion board requesting an expansion of voucher usage locations.

Parents also use the voucher to purchase fruits such as cherries and watermelon to avoid item restrictions. There are cases where fruit baskets worth around 70,000 KRW are ordered for delivery from convenience stores. The Office of Education is considering imposing a price limit of 40,000 KRW or less. They are also considering extending the usage period but are not reviewing expanding voucher usage to general restaurants.

A representative from the Office of Education said, "This policy was prepared as an extension of school meals and was not introduced as a benevolent policy," adding, "We have requested that purchasable items be displayed separately and made easy to identify."

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