The Gyeongbuk Office of Education (Superintendent Lim Jong-sik) achieved the distinction of winning the Grand Prize for the fourth consecutive year at the 2025 School Meal Best Practices Contest awards ceremony, held on December 15 at Cheongju OSC in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
The awards ceremony was attended by more than 300 people, including members of the Parent Policy Monitoring Group and representatives from provincial and metropolitan offices of education nationwide.
The School Meal Best Practices Contest, organized annually by the Ministry of Education since 2015, aims to discover outstanding cases in school meal operations and disseminate them to schools across the country. The contest features exemplary cases in school meals, nutrition, and dietary education from provincial and metropolitan offices of education nationwide. The top eight entries were selected through an on-site presentation and evaluation process.
This year, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education was awarded the Grand Prize for its entry themed "Peace Blossoming at the Table-Preventing School Violence through School Meals."
This case received high marks for its focus on the fact that 61.5% of school violence perpetrators act "as a prank or for no particular reason" (according to the Korea Educational Development Institute). The program, titled "Fist Rice Balls Instead of Fists," was designed to naturally internalize empathy and consideration through activities during mealtime and in the dietary education center.
Additionally, the selection as a best practice was largely due to student-led food experience activities, peer consideration challenges, and programs connecting parents and the local community, all of which allowed students to encounter a culture of peace and empathy in their daily lives.
The Gyeongbuk Office of Education has achieved the nation’s highest and most consistent results, winning two Grand Prizes in 2022, two Grand Prizes and one Encouragement Award in 2023, one Grand Prize and one Excellence Award in 2024, and again the Grand Prize in 2025.
The best practice selected this year will be shared at the Ministry of Education’s school meal policy performance briefing and will also be produced as a video to be introduced to other offices of education and the general public.
Bae Junsung, Director of Physical Education and Health, stated, "This award recognizes the process by which school meals have been operated not merely as meal provision but as educational activities that support relationship building and emotional growth among students. We will continue to focus on on-site operations and support so that school meals can naturally become a time for students to learn the values of safety, consideration, and respect in their daily lives."
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