Seongdong-gu Provides 'Food Ingredient Vouchers' to 20,000 Elementary, Middle, and High School Students

District provides 100,000 KRW worth food ingredient vouchers to 41 elementary, middle, and high schools with over 20,000 students... Total 380 million KRW district budget spent, offering eco-friendly rice and ingredient packages plus NongHyup Mall points

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) is collaborating with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the Seoul Metropolitan Government to support the Seoul-style ‘Student Food Voucher’ project, providing eco-friendly agricultural products and various food ingredients to over 20,000 students in the district.

This initiative aims to alleviate the economic burden on the school meal industry, which is struggling due to the suspension of school meals caused by delayed school openings, as well as on parents. The funding comes from the unused free meal budget due to the postponed school reopening, and will be implemented by providing mobile coupons worth approximately 100,000 KRW per student to families of 20,806 students across 41 schools in Seongdong-gu.

The program offers a mobile coupon worth 60,000 KRW for eco-friendly rice and food ingredient packages delivered directly to homes, along with 40,000 KRW in Nonghyup Mall points, allowing parents to select and purchase desired items.

The eco-friendly rice is scheduled to be delivered to each household in May, and the Nonghyup Mall points can be used until the end of July.

Seongdong-gu plans to allocate a total of 380 million KRW from the remaining budget of the existing eco-friendly school meal subsidies for March to May as support funds.

Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, stated, “The Student Food Voucher project is implemented to support meal producers and the school meal industry facing a crisis due to the suspension of school meals, and to ease the economic burden on parents even slightly. Seongdong-gu will also make every effort to ensure the successful implementation of the project through active and close cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government.”