Gongju City to Directly Operate School Meal Support Center...Quality Improvement Expected

Establishment of Production Management Team
and Foundation for Planning and Production

View of Gongju City Hall

Gongju City in South Chungcheong Province announced on the 19th that, starting this year, the city will directly operate the School Meal Support Center.

Last year, the city purchased the previously commissioned facility and integrated the functions of the School Meal Support Center and the Local Food Integrated Support Center, establishing a foundation for operations by preparing school meal operation guidelines.

In particular, by switching to direct management, the city can now use the entire 8% of the previous food budget (about 1.09 billion KRW), which was previously spent on operating costs for the commissioned agency, for students' food expenses. This is expected to lead to improved meal quality.

At the beginning of this year, the city reorganized its structure to create a Production Management Team and established a planning and production base. Accordingly, farms supplying to school meals are now required to join the Local Food Certification System and must sign contracts directly with the city.

Additionally, the city plans to create a stable shipping environment by introducing a system that refunds (payback) part of the costs for the agricultural product collection business and the commercialization of agricultural products to the farms.

Mayor Choi Woncheol stated, "The quality of school meals should not vary depending on the size of urban and rural schools. Active investment must be made for our children, the future generation," adding, "We will work closely with the Office of Education to create an environment where students want to go to school because the meals are delicious."

Meanwhile, Gongju City is providing free meals, eco-friendly ingredient subsidies, and support programs for Gongju-grown agricultural and livestock products to a total of 131 institutions, including daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary, middle, and high schools, serving 11,440 students.

The School Meal Support Center is responsible for the distribution and management of ingredients, equipped with collection and processing facilities, cold storage, pre-processing facilities, and 21 delivery vehicles, handling transactions worth a total of 13.6 billion KRW annually.

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