School Food Service in Korea: Investigation of the Operation and Management Systems

Lee, Young Eun; Yang, Il Sun; Cha, Jin A; Chae, In Sook; Kang, Hye Seung

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the operation and management systems of the school food services in Korea and to provide useful data for improving the quality of the school food services. This study was conducted in school food service operations nationwide using a written questionnaire. The questionnaires were mailed to the dieticians of three types of school food service systems-conventional, commissary, and joint-management. Of the 660 schools that participated in this study, the responses from 212 conventional system, 212 commissary system and 200 joint-management system services were selected for analysis. Statistical analysis was performed utilizing the SAS/Win 6.12 program so as to provide a descriptive statistics. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows: The average number of meals served per day was 1014, 738 and 695 in the conventional food service, the commissary food service and the joint-management food service systems, respectively. Over half (58.9%) of food service facilities were utilizing computer programs for their operations. Most of the commissary food service systems (52.4%) had a satellite school and served a maximum of 2000 meals per day. In most of the joint-management food service systems (87.1%), the number of food service schools managed was two and a maximum of 3330 meals were served. Only one dietician was posted irrespective of the school food service system. The mean hours of work by the dietician per day was 8.9, 8.6 and 8.6 in the conventional food service, the commissary food service and the joint-management food service systems, respectively. The principal work functions of cook personnel were cooking and cleaning.