Gimhae City Child Meal Card, Now Accepted Like Debit Cards in More Places

Franchise Stores Expanded 8 Times, Unified Card Design

Gimhae City in Gyeongnam Province will change the child meal cards issued to children at risk of food insecurity due to economic difficulties into financial institution check cards starting next year and significantly increase the number of affiliated stores.

On the 11th, Gimhae City announced that it will completely overhaul the child meal card system to expand the places where the meal cards can be used, thereby broadening children's meal choices and alleviating psychological difficulties caused by being conscious of external views when using the meal cards.

Since early this year, the city has been negotiating with several card companies and selected Shinhan Card Co., Ltd. as the operator of the child meal card project through a public contest in September and the Child Meal Committee meeting in October.

On the 1st of this month, a three-year agreement was signed with Shinhan Card focusing on developing an independent child meal card operation system, supporting IC cards, and providing system training for child welfare officers, with the new child meal card system to be implemented from January 1, 2024.

Gimhae City Hall, Gyeongnam.
Photo by Se-ryeong Lee

As a result of this agreement, the number of affiliated stores accepting the card has increased about eightfold from the previous 924 locations.

Child meal cards can now be used at approximately 7,000 general food affiliated stores of Shinhan Card, excluding restaurants inappropriate for those under 19 years old such as pubs and pojangmacha (street food tents).

The meal cards, which previously clearly showed that they were child meal cards, now apply the design of Shinhan Card’s IC chip-embedded check cards, reducing payment errors as well.

A city official said, “With the new child meal card project starting on the first day of the new year, we expect to provide more nutritious meals to growing children and eliminate the stigma associated with using child meal cards,” adding, “As a child-friendly city, Gimhae will spare no effort to support children to grow up healthy and happy.”

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