On February 25, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education opened the nation's first "Hub-style School Meal Frying Support Room" in a separate space inside Suwon Daepyeong Elementary School.
The "Hub-style School Meal Frying Support Room" is a new school meal model in which popular fried menu items among students are jointly cooked in a separate space using state-of-the-art frying robots and then supplied to nearby schools.
Because frying involves exposure to cooking fumes and high-temperature work, it is the most avoided type of work among school meal staff, and they have especially complained of difficulties in providing fried menus during the summer.
To address this issue, the frying support room has been designed as a cutting-edge cooking environment that includes: securing a space separate from the school kitchen; introducing state-of-the-art cooking robots dedicated to frying and installing a dedicated frying room; building a clean ventilation system that applies Gyeonggi-style school meal ventilation standards; and installing automated equipment.
Im Taehee, Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education (third from the right), visited the "Hub-type School Meal Frying Support Room," a dedicated space established within Suwon Daepyeong Elementary School on the 25th as the nation's first, and received an explanation from officials. Photo by Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education.
Under the operating system, food is jointly cooked in the frying support room and then delivered to nearby schools, and an observation room is also operated so that the frying robot cooking process can be viewed from outside.
Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Lim Taehee attended the opening ceremony that day and said, "We are constantly thinking about how to improve the treatment of school meal cooking staff," adding, "Safe and reassuring working conditions will directly lead to the quality of student meals."
He went on to say, "I hope that such facilities will spread to all schools in the province and further expand throughout the Republic of Korea," stressing, "This is ultimately the way to build a safe Korea."
The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education will operate the Hub-style School Meal Frying Support Room as a pilot project starting in March.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
