Selected for 3 Consecutive Years by the Ministry of Agriculture as 'Food Service Startup Incubating Project' Operator; Operating About 15 Teams at Sinchon Box Square Youth Support Restaurant from March to December... 'Soy I am Veggie' Team Wins Best Team Award in Evaluation
[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Seodaemun-gu (Mayor Moon Seok-jin) announced on the 18th that it won first place among seven implementing institutions nationwide participating in the project at the ‘2020 Youth Startup Restaurant Operation Best Practice Competition’ recently hosted online by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), receiving the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Award.
With this achievement, the district was finally selected as the ‘2021 Food Service Startup Incubating Project Implementer,’ allowing it to continue this project for three consecutive years since 2019.
Seodaemun-gu provides two stores within Sinchon Boxquare (22-5 Sinchon Station-ro), located in front of Sinchon Station on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, as ‘Youth Startup Restaurants’ so that prospective entrepreneurs in the food service sector can operate actual stores, reduce trial and error, and open the path to successful startups.
Last year, from April to December, 13 teams composed of youth and university students sequentially opened stores here for periods ranging from one to three months.
This year, the district formed a consortium with Ewha Womans University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation and eFood Lab to provide education and consulting on menu development, ingredient procurement, cooking, sales, hygiene, marketing, store management, and sales management for the operating teams.
In the competition, evaluations were conducted not only on the ‘project implementing institutions’ but also on the ‘operating teams,’ with 14 teams in total?two teams recommended from each of the seven nationwide project sites?participating in the contest.
The evaluation was conducted by having each team give an online presentation followed by answering questions from a panel of judges composed of food service experts.
As a result of the judging, the ‘Soy I am Veggie’ team and the ‘Bake Bean’ team, which operated Youth Startup Restaurants at Sinchon Boxquare, won the grand prize and the encouragement award, respectively.
Both teams developed and sold vegetarian menus such as bread without eggs, milk, or butter, and burgers with soy patties, receiving great responses from customers.
The district will recruit teams to participate in the Youth Startup Restaurant project in January and August, selecting about 15 teams in total to support education, consulting, business site rent, and kitchen equipment.
Each team will operate a store at Sinchon Boxquare for one to three months between March and December this year. Teams with dessert items will be placed in the first-floor store, and teams with instant cooking menus will be assigned to the second-floor store.
Moon Seok-jin, Mayor of Seodaemun-gu, said, “We hope many young people and university students will show interest and participate this year as well, operating Youth Startup Restaurants at Sinchon Boxquare to increase the possibility of successful startups.”
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