Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education Invests 19.4 Billion Won in Eco-Friendly Meal Expenses

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education will allocate 123.4 billion KRW for free school meals for all students in kindergartens, elementary, middle, high, and special schools starting from March 2022. Among this, 19.4 billion KRW will be invested to support eco-friendly meals to improve meal quality.

According to the Office of Education on the 22nd, in October, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and Gwangju City agreed to raise the unit price of school meal food costs for 2022 to the national average level.

Accordingly, the budget for free school meal food costs was increased by 2.95% for kindergartens, elementary, middle, and special schools, and by 5.9% for high schools.

The budget for eco-friendly agricultural product ingredients was also increased by 67%, and the average food cost unit price for 2022 is expected to reach 2,687 KRW for elementary schools, 3,153 KRW for middle schools, and 3,163 KRW for high schools.

Meanwhile, the average food cost unit price in the Gwangju area for 2021 was 2,427 KRW for elementary schools, 2,917 KRW for middle schools, and 2,790 KRW for high schools.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education plans to strengthen the use of eco-friendly certified agricultural products and excellent ingredients free of genetically modified foods in 2022, and also increase the meal operation budget by 10% to focus on meal quarantine and improvement of meal facilities and equipment.

Kim Yong-il, Director of the Finance and Welfare Division at the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, said, "Reflecting the difficulties faced this year due to the spread of COVID-19 and rising ingredient prices, we have significantly increased the school meal budget. We will continuously support meals that provide safe food made from eco-friendly ingredients to satisfy both students and parents."

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