▲ Ansan City Hall
Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, is pushing for a free lunch program to provide meals five days a week at local senior centers, with the goal of implementation in the first half of next year.
According to Ansan City on September 25, the free senior center lunch program provides meals to senior center users five days a week, excluding weekends and holidays, and is a key pledge project of Mayor Lee Min-geun's 9th popular election term.
The city aims to implement the program for 50 percent of all senior centers next year and gradually expand the targets, with the goal of providing free lunches to all senior centers by 2030.
To this end, the city will survey the meal status of all 274 senior centers in its jurisdiction starting next month for the purpose of collecting basic data for program implementation.
In this comprehensive survey, officials from each administrative welfare center will visit senior centers in person to investigate the actual number of diners, current status of lunch provision, kitchen environments, and demand for cooking personnel.
Based on this, the city plans to estimate the required budget and reflect it in the first supplementary budget bill next year to launch the project.
For senior centers where operating a kitchen is difficult or large-scale catering is needed, the city plans to provide free lunches in connection with the "half-price side dish delivery" project, which is part of the senior jobs program.
An official from Ansan City said, "We planned the free senior center lunch project to respond to a super-aged society and secure the health rights of local seniors," adding, "We will meticulously prepare so that the project can be implemented without a hitch early next year."
Meanwhile, according to an estimation of meal status earlier this year by Ansan City based on the senior center operation budgets executed by each district office, the total number of diners at 271 senior centers at the time was 6,861, with meals provided an average of 3.46 times a week, and meal budgets taking up approximately 1.78 billion won.
(Photo courtesy of Ansan City, Yonhap News)
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