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Donations of school meals

Posted October. 18, 2011 00:05,   

한국어

The net expense for food ingredients excluding management and labor costs at Seoul elementary schools is 2,222 won (1.95 U.S. dollars) per student. Whether this is enough to provide quality meals to rapidly growing children in this era of high inflation is questionable. If free meals continued to be provided to all public school students across the board, chances are high that the quality of existing meals will deteriorate. This is because the budget will not keep abreast of rising costs. At more than 150 schools nationwide, ingredients for meals are being switched from Grade 1 hanwoo (Korean beef), organic rice and homegrown sesame oil into Grade 3 regular beef, ordinary rice and imported sesame oil. Unsatisfied with school meals, students who eat the inferior meals ask for snacks as soon as they come home from school.

The ruling Grand National Party has pledged to prevent degradation of meal quality caused by the expansion of free meals to all public students through “donated meals.” It plans to allow parents, the people, corporations and organizations to make donations to metropolitan and provincial offices of education. Parents can make donations but the profiles of donors and amount of donations are not publicized. If this policy is correctly implemented, it could serve as the expression of a warmhearted community. Donation culture in the U.S. has much to be envied, as ordinary people and organizations pool small amounts of funds to build and donate to hospitals and youth facilities.

Yet the plan to provide tax deductions for 110 percent to 120 percent of donations for meals does not sound positive. If tax is exempt for the donations, taxpayers’ money will be inevitably used to offer free school meals. The measure in effect repeats the reasoning of the main opposition Democratic Party in a roundabout. If the ruling party is to differentiate itself from its rival, it should clarify its budget priorities. For instance, does it want to earmark 5 trillion won (4.39 billion dollars) from the government budget to remove asbestos, a carcinogen detected at 96 percent of public schools nationwide, or will it use 3 trillion won (2.63 billion dollars) of the amount because providing free school meals to all elementary students is more urgent?

Now that the ruling party has suggested the idea, it is being asked to widely open up the channel for unconditional donations for school meals, and thus expand the provision of school meals while keeping meal quality and without spending more tax money. If this happens, even civic groups that staged a campaign to reject August’s public poll in Seoul to provide all public school students with free school meals are expected to welcome the move. A number of the civic organizations have many fundraising experts. Some civic groups claim that though they received donations from companies that could cause a conflict of interest, such donations are far from problematic because "they were made to realize the spirit of sharing.”

Editorial Writer Lee Hyeong-sam (hans@donga.com)