Nation’s largest food service provider leaves 102 schools in lurch
CJ Food System, the nation’s largest food distributor, said that it will stop providing school lunches in order to take responsibility for a recent massive food poisoning in the Seoul area that sickened over 1,700 students. The distributor provides lunches and food materials to 102 primary and secondary schools nationwide. About 100 schools were affected by the poisoning outbreak two weeks ago. Among them, 93 schools were directly managed by CJ Food System and the remaining schools were provided with food materials by the company. The Ministry of Education & Human Resources estimated on June 26 that nearly 80,000 students in 102 schools nationwide would not recieve their lunches because of CJ’s announcement. Of the affected schools, 82 asked students to bring their own lunch and 20 are shortening school hours.The education ministry said it would make utmost efforts to minimize the effect of CJ’s decision. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education asserted that from the next semester, beginning later in the summer, students would be provided with lunches without fail, citing the need to take some time to select alternate food service providers for all of the schools. About 15 percent, or 1,665 schools out of nearly 10,000 schools nationwide, entrust management of their cafeterias to private companies. According to the education ministry, it would need a total of 331 billion won (331 million USD) per year if all schools begin to manage their cafeterias directly, as some civic and parents’ groups have called for following the outbreak. The Seoul education office has sent documents to its schools asking for their decision on cafeteria self-management by July 20. The education ministry predicts some 18.6 billion won alone is already necessary in the wake of CJ’s announcement. The government and the ruling Uri Party suggested a plan to improve the school lunch system at a special conference yesterday. The education ministry spoke at the proceedings, saying that it is considering a system under which the schools and food distributors share responsibility in managing the cafeterias. Under the so-called ’complementary’ system, school principals would take charge of selection and purchase of food materials and private companies would provide services like cooking, distribution of food, and sanitation. In addition, the government and the ruling party pushed to establish a support center in order to systematically manage the business end of the school lunch system. This plan will be included in a revised bill of related laws now pending at the National Assembly.
