The History of the School Milk Program in Korea

Abstract

The Authors investigated the history of school lunch and school milk programs in South Korea, and divided into five periods, which are 1） ‘Foreign aid term,1953-1972, 2） ‘Grope term, 1973-1980, 3） ‘Establishment term,1981-1988, 4） ‘Expansion term,1989-1995, 5） ‘Enrichment term,1996- present. The school milk program started for the purpose of the children's nutritional improvement by powdered milk which was a foreign aid material. After the foreign aid was ended, the school milk program by fresh milk was gradually developed with the purpose of pomoting dairy farming as well as the original purpose using by government subsides. While school lunch implementation rate reaches to 99.9% or 7,180,000 students a day is being provided at present, the school milk implementation rate is still only 51.8%. As its background, the institutions of the school lunch program and the school milk program are administered separately, and there are not enough special divisions in charge of the school milk program. Also as another reasons, milk allergy and feeling of milk avoidance can be considered.