1,000-won breakfast for college kids may be gone due to lack of funding, schools say

K-campus

Published: 08 Sep. 2023, 11:38

1,000-won breakfast for college kids may be gone due to lack of funding, schools say

Kyung Hee University students line up in the school's dining hall to buy vouchers for the 1,000-won ($0.8) breakfast in March. [YONHAP]

The 1,000-won ($0.8) breakfast offered at select universities in Korea might be gone for good as schools and regional governments are running out of budget for the program.

"Labor and ingredient costs are skyrocketing, but the budget allocated [for the project] is far from enough," an official from Kangwon National University, who was granted anonymity, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday. "We are still running the program with donations from our faculty, but I don't know how long this can last."

The 1,000-won breakfast program is led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to help students on a tight budget get breakfast and to boost declining rice consumption in Korea.

According to the ministry data in May, 145 universities nationwide agreed to run the program this year until the end of November.

The ministry and the universities share the costs incurred for the program, with the ministry and the students each paying 1,000 per meal while the schools cover the rest.

Kangwon National University started the program in 2020 during midterm and final exams periods only. Then, given positive reviews from students, the school expanded the program to run for the whole semester from March this year.

At Kangwon National University's Chuncheon Campus, 300 to 350 students take advantage of the 1,000-won breakfast program on a daily basis. At the Samcheok Campus of the university, the number is between 100 and 150.

The university official said the program can run until the end of this year with the allotted budget of 60 million won provided by the Agriculture Ministry, 76 million won set aside by the university and 78 million won from the college development fund, totaling 214 million won.

It remains uncertain whether the program can continue next year and beyond.

While each meal of breakfast costs the university's cafeteria 4,000 won, that cost has become hard to maintain as food prices have been on the rise, the university official said.

"This year, our faculty tried to fill the gap by paying from our own pockets, but if the price of the meal continues to rise, the university can no longer operate this program with its own budget," the official added.

Within Gangwon, a total of seven universities are running the program, including Kangwon National University, Hallym University, Catholic Kwandong University and Gangneung Wonju National University.

Most of the universities share the situation Kangwon National University faces.

While some universities tried to persuade the provincial government to provide more funding, they were told no.

Schools in Seoul also struggle to maintain the program.

Sejong University, a private university in Seoul, has not yet begun the 1,000-won breakfast program for the second semester that began this month. The program was active in the previous semester.

A Sejong University official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the JoongAng Ilbo in an interview that the "school is reviewing the program internally, including the budget issue, with an understanding that the students want the program [to continue.]"

Some universities are coming up with ways to solve the problem, such as changing the meals to processed convenience foods or cutting the number of meals provided each day.

Kangwon National University's Samcheok Campus, for instance, opted to serve students simple lunchboxes or sandwiches instead of full breakfasts.

Some local governments are trying to keep the program going by providing funding to universities.

Korea University students line up for the 1,000-won breakfast offered at their school dining hall at its campus in Seoul in March.

North Chungcheong Provincial Government and several city governments within the province allotted a total of 35.4 million won in their supplementary budget this year to help five universities continue the program.

Next year, they plan on expanding the program budget to 100 million won.

Gyeonggi Provincial Government also plans to set aside 90 million won in its supplementary budget this year to support 24 universities run the program.

Some experts, though, say the program does not help students needing financial assistance.

"The government is too much involved in running this program," Kim Tae-yun, professor of public administration at Hanyang University, said.

"We should closely examine whether it is fair to give such benefits to students who are actually having the 1,000-won breakfast," he added.

Kim said that the budget should be allocated to "students in need who have been studying hard in difficult circumstances in the form of scholarships."

BY PARK JIN-HO, KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]