For Stable Meal Provision... Ulsan Office of Education Supports Substitute Staff in Cafeterias Responding to COVID-19

Ulsan Office of Education.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education is providing substitute personnel to minimize gaps caused by COVID-19 confirmations among cafeteria workers and to ensure stable meal service for students.

As substitute cafeteria personnel, 10 cooking assistants will be temporarily hired until the end of July to support meal service operations.

Experienced professionals will be secured to immediately support school meal services and will be deployed by each education support office upon hiring.

If cooking assistants at standalone kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools, special schools, or various other schools are unable to work due to COVID-19 confirmation, the school can request the corresponding substitute personnel.

Priority support will be given to substitutes for COVID-19 confirmed cases, and if substitute requests are insufficient, substitutes will cover sick leave, special leave, etc., and schools requiring urgent deployment for meal service will also be supported.

Substitute cooking assistants are required to self-check their health status before reporting to work.

Applying schools will prepare hygiene uniforms and related supplies and convey work details, safety education, and operational matters to the substitute cooking assistants to enable immediate support for meal service tasks.

Along with supporting substitute cooking assistants, the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education plans to hire two fixed-term nutrition teachers to assist with school meal services and other duties during nutrition teacher or dietitian absences.

With substitute personnel assigned to handle school meal services or substitute classes, it is expected that school meal stabilization will improve, the workload of dietitians will be reduced, and working conditions will be enhanced.

In response to the spread of Omicron, when some cooking staff are quarantined, the office has utilized substitute personnel pools from schools or the education office. When it is difficult to replenish substitute personnel, meal plans and cooking methods have been simplified, including substitute meals.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19 within cafeterias, 1 to 4 disinfection personnel are assigned according to the number of students to support tasks such as wiping tables and partitions, disinfecting, and ventilating.