“I’d rather eat prison food” … Middle school lunch sparks controversy on online community.

[‘\n’, ‘Seoul Seocho-gu has faced public outrage from parents of students attending a middle school there due to poor school meals.’, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘According to the education industry on the 7th, issues surrounding inadequate school meals at A Middle School in Seocho-gu came to light when a parent, identified as B, posted on a Seocho-gu parents\’ online community on the 26th of last month with the title “Are the Kids at ○○ Middle School Prisoners?”. B expressed frustration by saying, “Today\’s ○○ Middle School meal. Only two side dishes: pickled radish and stir-fried blood sausage.”‘, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘In the photo attached by B, on the tray there is only rice, soup, and one type of stir-fried blood sausage. On the tray of the student sitting across, there was the same side dish with one beverage. The rest of the compartments were empty.’, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘In reality, the school meal at A Middle School that day consisted of rice, tofu kimchi stew, stir-fried blood sausage with vegetables, pickled radish, and a probiotic drink. It was reported that many students who do not eat kimchi often only had the stir-fried blood sausage as their side dish. Another student couldn\’t eat the blood sausage, so ended up eating just kimchi from the tofu kimchi stew for lunch.’, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘Upon seeing the photo, parents responded with comments like “Even prison food looks better than that” “There are reasons why my child complains of being hungry every day” “When I asked my child, they said the kids were secretly planning to buy and eat something” “My husband, who was in the military, is shocked, saying it wasn\’t even served that poorly there.”‘, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘The controversy over inadequate school meals at the school was attributed to a shortage of kitchen staff. One parent reported in a comment, “I heard that there are only about 2 kitchen staff members at A Middle School.” In fact, it was said that at this school, two kitchen helpers were in charge of preparing meals for 1,000 students without a cook.’, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘A Middle School belatedly acknowledged the issue and has taken steps to recruit additional kitchen staff. Seocho-gu Mayor Jeon Seong-soo stated in a response sent to parents who filed complaints on the 1st, “To ensure the normal operation of school meals, the Gangnam-Seocho Educational Support Office, the relevant agency, has informed that they will prioritize the deployment of kitchen staff to A Middle School in the next assignment. It was also confirmed that the school is currently advertising job openings for kitchen staff recruitment to address the shortfall.”‘, ‘\n’, ‘\n’, ‘Furthermore, he added, “The management and operation of meals in elementary, middle, and high schools are matters that should be judged according to the overall conditions of each school and decisions made by the school principal in accordance with the School Meals Act” and concluded by saying, “In response to inquiries regarding improvement in meal quality, I received an answer that the number of side dishes has been increased from 3 to 4 starting in May.”‘, ‘\n’]