Namdong District in Incheon Launches Surplus School Meal Sharing Project... Signs Agreement with Participating Schools

Namdong District in Incheon has launched a donation project utilizing surplus school meals.

The district announced on the 25th that it has signed a financial business agreement for the “Hopeful Feast Sharing Project” with Inje High School, Munil Girls’ High School, Namdong District Food Bank, and Guwol Comprehensive Social Welfare Center. These organizations have agreed to establish a cooperative system for this project, which will provide surplus school meals as side dishes to vulnerable groups.

At the 'Hopeful Feast Sharing Project' agreement ceremony held at Namdong District Office in Incheon on the 24th, (from left) Lee Inho, Namdong Food Bank Team Leader, Kim Seokgyeom, Director of Guwol Comprehensive Social Welfare Center, Park Jonghyo, Mayor of Namdong District, Jeon Jaemyeong, Principal of Inje High School, and Park Sumi, Principal of Munil Girls' High School, are taking a commemorative photo. Namdong District, Incheon

“Surplus meals” refer to clean food left over after cooking in group meal services that has not been served, and is hygienically distinct from leftovers that have already been distributed. However, most surplus meals are currently discarded as food waste, incurring significant costs in the process. In fact, as of last year, the cost of processing school food waste in Namdong District reached approximately 270 million won.

In the past, donating surplus meals was difficult due to controversies over the Food Sanitation Act. However, in August last year, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety established regulations for storage and transportation management, opening the way for such donations. Based on this, Namdong District became the first in Incheon to prepare concrete implementation measures.

Under the project, participating schools will first hygienically sort and collect surplus meals and hand them over. The Namdong District Food Bank will then transport them to the Guwol Comprehensive Social Welfare Center, which will repackage the food into lunch boxes and distribute them to vulnerable groups such as basic livelihood security recipients, single-parent families, and elderly people living alone.

The district plans to operate the surplus meal sharing project as a pilot for six months, after which it will comprehensively review beneficiary satisfaction and operational outcomes to gradually expand the initiative.

Park Jonghyo, Mayor of Namdong District, stated, “The school meal donation project is a meaningful policy that goes beyond simply sharing food, as it also contributes to carbon neutrality and neighborly love. We will take the lead in creating a sustainable model community in Incheon.”

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