Lee Jae-myung: "I Hope Beloved Youth in Korea Don't Suffer from Food Insecurity"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung is drawing attention by revealing his firm policies regarding food security.

On the 28th, Governor Lee posted a lengthy message on his SNS titled "The Sorrow of Going Hungry is Greatest."

Through this post, the governor reflected on his childhood, saying "My childhood memories are unusually related to hunger."

He then explained the purpose of the 'Gyeonggi Food Dream Centers' and stated, "Isn't it more important to ensure that human dignity is not compromised by food insecurity, no matter how great the side effects?" thus addressing the issue of food security.

The governor also provided specific details about Gyeonggi Province's improvements to youth meal cards.

Governor Lee concluded, "I won't deny that most of my new policies come from my own experience. I hope that beloved youth in South Korea, a country that is an OECD member and ranks among the world's top 10 economies, don't suffer from the sorrow of food insecurity."

The following is the full text of Governor Lee Jae-myung's SNS post.

<The Sorrow of Going Hungry is Greatest.>
My childhood memories are unusually related to hunger.
Those ten-ri mountain paths I walked and ran, carrying a cloth-wrapped lunchbox. My lunchbox with only hardened barley rice and bean side dishes as my entire meal would be more than half-empty before lunch time, making the journey home from school—from lunchtime through the evening—more difficult than the scorching sun itself.
Powdered milk and hardened biscuits were the finest snacks, and the class officer who distributed twenty biscuits one by one was the greatest wielder of power. On my way home, except during the depths of winter, I was always searching the mountains and streams. In spring, I picked azaleas on the hillside and carried armfuls of wild rose shoots from the stream valley to eat at home. When my sister went out to pick honeysuckle flowers to sell as herbal medicine, I waited more eagerly for the wild strawberries buried in her flower-filled basket, heavy with floral fragrance, than for her return.
When I caught insects on my way to school in the middle of summer and laid them on rocks, they would ripen red by the afternoon when I returned. The old abandoned cemetery that others feared to visit became my own farm abundant with thick, sturdy spikenard, and the wild peaches I picked before they fully ripened—which many others had harvested—tasted less sour and bitter when boiled and became somewhat edible.
On a summer night thick with mosquito smoke and loud with the sounds of field insects, there was the joy of waiting for neighborhood older boys returning from peach thieving, and there was the fun of roasting wheat over a bonfire until my mouth turned black, and half-ripened beans made for good bean thieving. I picked persimmons from branches extending along the roadside and, startled by the owner's shout, fled in panic. I was even mistaken for a peach thief, had my cloth wrapper taken, and cried bitterly.
When autumn came and the water grew too cold to venture in for fishing, I wandered through valleys searching for wild grapes, porcelain berry, mountain chestnuts, and akebia. After the harvest, when I turned over the fields with my palm, peanuts would appear, and when I dug through empty sweet potato fields with a hoe, sweet potatoes would emerge. It was heartbreaking to see sweet potatoes split by the hoe.
In the dead of winter, I would wait while adults played cards for radish stakes, and when the losers pulled cold radishes from the radish storage, I would get a share to eat. Breaking ice to catch frogs and fish for spicy soup stew was also a unique taste. The flavor of getting a strand or two of the ramen side dishes that my mother—who sold makgeolli inside a room of an abandoned squatter's settlement—served to neighborhood guests was also quite satisfying.
After finishing elementary school and moving to Seongnam to work as a child laborer, I wanted to eat the hot dogs and hotteok sold on the street, and I wanted to eat hotbak steaming in containers, but I never had money. The cold barley rice I ate on the factory floor with hardened fish cake side dishes was hard to swallow, and at a new factory where we were served meals, I resented the meal worker for giving only one piece of fish, and resented the thin, clear soup broth with no substance. In the spring of 1978, while working at the Orient factory, I went on an excursion to Nami Island with coworkers for the first time and had my fill of pork for the first time. My childhood is filled with such memories of food.
As with anyone, nothing is more important than what one eats during one's lifetime, and when food is scarce, sorrow is great. The greatest pain is a parent's heart when unable to feed their children properly and on time. During my tenure as Seongnam mayor and now as Gyeonggi governor, I have always tried to ensure that food insecurity does not cause sorrow for anyone.
The 'Gyeonggi Food Dream Centers' were created so that no one dies, steals, or feels ashamed out of hunger—whether their own or their family's. Isn't ensuring that human dignity is not compromised by food insecurity more important than any side effects that might arise from not conducting eligibility reviews?
Gyeonggi Province supports meal cards with 86.3 billion won for 75,664 youth to purchase breakfast, lunch, and dinner according to their circumstances. However, hearing that most use them to buy kimbap triangles or cup ramen at convenience stores, I carefully improved the system so they can eat confidently without stigma and with full bellies.
First, the supported meal allowance of 4,500 won per meal was too small, so I raised it to 6,000 won and am currently proceeding to raise it again to 7,000 won. The per-transaction limit of 8,000 won was also increased to 12,000 won, allowing users to accumulate their support funds and choose what they want to eat.
In-province card usage locations numbered only 11,500, with most being convenience stores (8,000 locations). Now the card can be used anywhere BC card is accepted (approximately 154,000 locations).
The existing card had a distinctive design that revealed it was for meal support, which could create stigma. I completely redesigned it to look like a standard check card so there is no distinction.
Balance inquiries that were previously only possible on computers are now available anytime through a mobile app, so users don't have to worry about how much balance remains.
I won't deny that most of my new policies stem from my own experience. I truly hope that beloved youth in South Korea, a country that is an OECD member and ranks among the world's top 10 economies, don't suffer from the sorrow of food insecurity.