Gyeonggi-do to Establish Delivery Order Platform for Child Meal Cards... Pilot Operation Next Year

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is developing a 'Child Meal Support Platform' that allows children from vulnerable groups to place non-face-to-face orders via delivery apps using their child meal cards, and plans to pilot it in Yongin and Uiwang cities in the first half of next year.

On the 15th, Gyeonggi Province announced that it held a 'Kick-off Meeting for the Non-face-to-face Child Meal Support Platform for Vulnerable Groups' at the Seoul office of the platform developer 'Bizplay,' together with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the National Information Society Agency (NIA), and Daegu Metropolitan City.

This platform development follows the selection of Gyeonggi Province and Daegu City in January this year for the '2022 Non-face-to-face Life Care Platform Construction Project for Vulnerable Groups,' hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the NIA.

The main content is to build an open platform that links Gyeonggi Province's child meal card, the 'G-Dream Card,' with Gyeonggi's public delivery app, 'Baedal Teukgeup,' enabling online and non-face-to-face ordering and payment.

The province currently supports approximately 72,000 vulnerable children under 18 years old in the region with meal expenses of 8,000 KRW per meal.

The meal expense payment methods include the child meal card (G-Dream Card), lunchbox delivery, and group meals at local children's centers, which are selected and supported by each city and county.

The problem is that the child meal card can only be used for on-site face-to-face payments, which may stigmatize vulnerable children and limit their choices, exposing them to risks such as COVID-19 infection spread.

The child meal support platform aims to solve these issues. Users open the delivery app, register the child meal card as a payment method, and can order food up to a maximum of 40,000 KRW per transaction.

In addition to online order payment linkage through the delivery app, the province plans to add features such as ▲ convenience store QR code payment ▲ integrated child meal management system including support child management and local government budget management ▲ unified computerization linked with Happiness Connection and Bokjiro systems ▲ nutrition management services based on food order data by children ▲ and analysis of usage patterns such as order time and location to detect anomalies.

Since each city and county has different methods of providing meal expenses to vulnerable children, the province plans to pilot the platform in Yongin and Uiwang cities in the first half of next year and then expand its operation. Efforts are also underway to discover other online ordering channels besides delivery apps.

Kim Mi-seong, Director of the Family and Women’s Bureau of the province, said, "With the development of the platform, children will be able to place online non-face-to-face orders, which is expected to further secure their meal choice rights," adding, "We will establish a sustainable meal system that children can use comfortably without being affected by situations such as infectious diseases, thereby eliminating blind spots in child welfare."

Meanwhile, last year, Gyeonggi Province completely replaced the design of the child meal card from magnetic to an integrated circuit (IC) chip card with a design similar to a general check card.

Since August 31, 2020, the number of places where the child meal card can be used has increased from about 11,000 to about 207,000 by automatically linking BC Card's general restaurant affiliates (excluding pubs, pojangmacha, cafes, etc.) with the child meal card. Since August this year, efforts to expand children's meal choices continue, including allowing the use of the child meal card at food courts in large supermarkets.