After Counting Coins Following Ramen and Gimbap Order, Mother and Child 'Canceled Order'... "I Paid Instead, Is That Being Nosy?"

Praise from Netizens Continues for the Story
4 to 5 out of 100 Children in Our Country Are Food-Insecure Children

A story of a netizen who paid for a mother and child’s meal after seeing them hesitate due to lack of money at a restaurant has been shared. On the 6th, an online community, BobaeDream, featured a post titled "At a snack bar yesterday at lunch." The author, Mr. A, began, "Yesterday morning, after handling some personal errands, I was eating ramen and a roll of gimbap at a snack bar in front of the office a little late for lunch. At that moment, a mother and her son, about five or six years old, came in together."

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Mr. A’s attention was drawn to them as the mother and child looked at the menu posted on the wall, ordered one ramen and one roll of gimbap, and then took out some bills and coins from the jacket pocket, counting them one by one. Suddenly, they requested to cancel the ramen order. However, the restaurant staff informed them, "The ramen has already been prepared, so cancellation is not possible."

Witnessing this scene, Mr. A said, "It seemed they didn’t have enough money. Since others were eating and I thought I might be overstepping, I hurriedly finished my meal and paid for the mother and child’s meal at the counter as well. But I also wondered if it was an unnecessary interference." He added, "Before paying, I thought and worried several times about whether I might hurt the mother’s feelings even more." Many netizens left supportive and praising comments on Mr. A’s post. Comments included, "That was really a good thing to do," "If they only ordered one roll of gimbap for two, the mother must have been very hungry," "It might be meddling, but it’s kind meddling," "Hearing stories like this makes me feel the world is still worth living in," and "It was good that the payment was made in advance so the child’s parent wouldn’t feel bad."

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s child meal support status, the number of food-insecure children nationwide last year was 277,394. Although this is a decrease of about 104,000 (28%) compared to 381,838 in 2014, considering that the population under 18 decreased by more than 2 million during the same period, it still means that 4 or 5 out of every 100 children are going hungry.