Chungnam Expands Supply of Local Ingredients for School Meals

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is expanding the scale of supplying locally excellent ingredients for school meals.

The province recently announced on the 21st that it selected 38 companies and 130 items to participate in the 'School Meal Local Excellent Ingredient Supply Project' through a public contest.

The project is implemented to supply locally produced food to school meals, protect students' health, and increase the income of local farmers and fishermen.

The participants are companies that supply and consume local agricultural, livestock, and marine products suitable for school meals, as well as manufacturers and suppliers of processed foods using these as raw materials.

Through this project, the province has selected 9 companies with 8 items in 2019, 22 companies with 30 items in 2020, 34 companies with 36 items in 2021, and 34 companies with 51 items in 2022.

This year, the number of companies increased by 4 and the number of items increased by 79 compared to the previous year.

The excellent ingredient supply companies by region are distributed as follows: 10 in Asan, 6 in Dangjin, 4 in Cheonan, 4 in Nonsan, and 3 in Yesan.

The items these companies will supply to school meals include traditional sauces, organic red pepper powder, kimchi, yogurt, antibiotic-free milk, tofu, and pesticide-free soybean sprouts.

In particular, this year the province plans to start supplying antibiotic-free chicken and eggs and discover bakery and confectionery suppliers using wheat grown in Chungnam.

Through this, the province's plan is to increase the proportion of local ingredients supplied to frontline school meals to over 60%.

The local supply rate has steadily increased over the years: 39% in 2018, 46% in 2019, 54% in 2020, 58.5% in 2021, and 58.9% in 2022.

Oh Jin-gi, Director of the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock, said, “The supply of local ingredients to school meals is implemented to help students' health and increase the income of local farmers and fishermen,” and added, “The province plans to continuously expand this project considering its positive effects.”

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