Sejong City Increases Free School Meal Budget, Providing 29.1 Billion KRW Support

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Sejong City plans to improve the quality of student meals by increasing the budget for free school meals this year.

The city announced on the 2nd that it has allocated a total budget of 29.1 billion KRW for free meals for elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as for high-quality agricultural products for kindergartens.

The related budget represents a 5% increase compared to the previous year. The free meal budget rose by 4.2 billion KRW from 24.1 billion KRW last year to 28.3 billion KRW this year, while the budget for high-quality agricultural products increased by 40 million KRW from 720 million KRW to 760 million KRW.

Support for school meals (free meals) is provided by the city fully supplying food ingredients in kind, while the Sejong City Office of Education covers operational and labor costs, sharing the expenses equally.

Through this, the city plans to provide free meals in kind to approximately 60,000 students across 101 elementary, middle, high, and special schools within the city this year. Additionally, the budget for high-quality agricultural products will support 7,500 children in 63 kindergartens.

Besides increasing the food budget, the city will also introduce a new support category for groups ranging from 1 to 50 students per school level.

Starting this year, the city plans to establish a systematic inspection system and strengthen quality control of meal ingredients by encouraging private sector participation, such as operating a post-delivery evaluation system for suppliers through a parent-participated inspection volunteer group.

A city official stated, “We will ensure that high-quality local ingredients are provided in school meals to promote universal educational welfare and improve the quality of meals for the physical and mental development of growing students.”

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