"No Child Goes Hungry During Winter Break"... Dongjak-gu Provides Meal Support to 1,140 Children

Dongjak-gu, Seoul (Mayor Park Il-ha) will provide meals to 1,140 vulnerable children at risk of missing meals during the winter vacation when school meals are suspended.

The support targets children under 18 years old, both enrolled and not enrolled in school, who have difficulty securing meals at home and are at risk of missing meals, including recipients of basic living benefits, lower-income households, and single-parent families.

Park Il-ha, Mayor of Dongjak-gu. Provided by Dongjak-gu.

Children can be identified directly by responsible public officials, teachers, and community leaders, or selected from those using local children's centers and social welfare centers within the district.

Selected recipients will receive a Kkum Namu Card, which can be used at approximately 2,800 affiliated stores in the district, or they can use group meal services at 23 local children's centers. For those who apply for lunchboxes, freshly prepared lunchboxes will be delivered to their homes once a week. Following a meal price increase from 8,000 KRW to 9,000 KRW earlier this year, the price will be raised again to 9,500 KRW next year.

Additionally, the district plans to expand support for children at risk of missing meals by providing holiday packages twice a year to vulnerable children.

Meanwhile, on the 17th, the district signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation on the Happy Two Meals Project with the Happiness Alliance Secretariat and the Happy Dosirak Social Cooperative, establishing a public-private partnership to create a society without hunger.

According to this agreement, from April next year for one year, high-quality lunchboxes will be provided once or twice a week to about 40 children at risk of missing meals who are in welfare blind spots. The district plans to actively identify children who do not meet support criteria despite difficult circumstances and to continue public support by linking with the district’s meal support projects, thereby providing stronger protection for vulnerable groups.

Mayor Park Il-ha said, “We will actively identify children at risk of missing meals during the winter vacation and provide them with a healthy meal so that no child skips a meal,” adding, “We will continue to make every effort to create a Dongjak-gu without welfare blind spots.”