BGF Retail Signs Agreement with Hwaseong City to Support Migrant Children and Youth

Concerns Over Food Insecurity Due to Few Nearby Restaurants... Meal Cards Usable at Over 300 CUs in Hwaseong City Provided
Franchisee Awareness Improvement Training and Payment Method Guidance, Expanded Healthy Menu for Growing Children

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] BGF Retail is becoming a meal provider for migrant-background children and adolescents.

BGF Retail announced on the afternoon of the 8th at Hwaseong City Hall that Kim Min-hyung, BGF Retail Regional Manager, Hwaseong Mayor Seo Cheol-mo, and other officials attended to sign a business agreement for the migrant-background children and adolescent meal support project.

The migrant-background children and adolescent meal support project is a pilot program by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, aimed at providing meal cards usable at convenience stores with high accessibility to children and adolescents facing food insecurity living in service-deprived areas.

Hwaseong City, a mixed urban-rural city, ranks second in Gyeonggi Province for foreign population (65,040 people as of 2019). The city confirmed concerns about food insecurity among some migrant-background children and adolescents due to differences in parenting culture and lack of nearby restaurants, and planned the meal support project based on the familiar convenience store infrastructure for children.

As of last year, Hwaseong City operates over 300 CU stores, securing the best accessibility among major convenience store brands. Based on this business agreement, BGF Retail will conduct awareness training about migrant-background children and adolescents for CU franchise stores in Hwaseong City and provide guidance on items purchasable with the meal card to create a more comfortable purchasing environment for the children.

In particular, BGF Retail plans to review weekly purchase records made with the meal card at CU to provide the city with data to monitor the meal status of migrant-background children and adolescents, ensuring they have balanced meals.

To help growing children easily consume healthy products, BGF Retail will also increase products that combine taste and nutrition. They will continuously expand low-sodium and low-calorie lunchboxes and gimbap that meet the calorie and nutrient recommendations of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and strengthen fresh and healthy food offerings by introducing the tastiest seasonal fruits each month in washed and small-packaged forms.

Kim Min-hyung, BGF Retail Regional Manager, said, "CU will be more than a place for children to have delicious meals; it will be a comfortable and safe shelter. We will work closely with the city to provide systematic support," adding, "BGF Retail will continue efforts to understand the value of sharing and realize it to create a warmer society."

Meanwhile, BGF Group continues efforts to create a world without food-insecure children through the BGF Welfare Foundation. The foundation has supported meals for children struggling to secure meals during school vacations when meal services are suspended, and since last year, has operated the 'Home Warm Meal' campaign delivering free meals to the homes of food-insecure children who do not receive government support on weekends.

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