Additional Meal Support for Incheon Daycare Centers... 180 Won per Day for Ages 0-2, 1,000 Won for Ages 3-5

Among All Metropolitan Governments Nationwide, the Highest Support Amount
2580 Won per Day for Infants, 4220 Won for Young Children

Incheon City provides the highest support for meal expenses for infants and toddlers in daycare centers among all special and metropolitan cities nationwide.

The city announced that starting from July, it will additionally support meal expenses per person at 180 KRW per day for infants (0-2 years old) and 1,000 KRW per day for toddlers (3-5 years old). This is to improve the quality of meals for infants and toddlers in daycare centers and to reduce the gap in meal expenses compared to kindergartens.

Currently, kindergartens receive an additional meal expense support separate from the 280,000 KRW Nuri Curriculum subsidy, but for infants and toddlers in daycare centers, meal expenses are included in the Nuri Curriculum subsidy (childcare fee), causing differences in meal expenses depending on the daycare center attended by the toddler.

In this regard, Incheon City has been implementing the nation’s first "Clean Free Meal Support Project for Daycare Centers" since 2018, and has proactively decided to provide additional meal expense support for infants.

Accordingly, the daily meal expense for 38,000 infants using daycare centers will increase from the existing 500 KRW to 680 KRW, and combined with the meal expense included in the government childcare fee (1,900 KRW), a total of 2,580 KRW per day (56,760 KRW per month) will be supported.

The city has secured a budget of 908 million KRW for the additional meal expense support. The project cost will be borne 70% by the city and 30% by the counties and districts respectively.

Incheon City Hall

Additionally, in cooperation with the City Office of Education, the city will provide an additional 1,000 KRW per day meal expense for toddlers using daycare centers, resulting in a total daily meal expense support of 4,220 KRW per person.

This meal expense support for infants and toddlers in daycare centers by Incheon City is the highest amount among all special and metropolitan cities nationwide.

Currently, infant meal expenses are 2,500 KRW in Gwangju, 2,400 KRW in Daejeon, 2,300 KRW in Busan, 2,200 KRW in Ulsan, and 2,097 KRW in Seoul. Meanwhile, toddler meal expenses are 3,300 KRW in Daejeon, 3,165 KRW in Seoul, 3,100 KRW in Gwangju, 2,900 KRW in Busan, and 2,820 KRW in Daegu.

Meanwhile, Incheon City is the first among special and metropolitan cities nationwide to fully support necessary expenses such as special activity fees and field trip fees (175,000 KRW per person annually) for 5-year-old children before entering elementary school.

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