Government-Funded Meal Support Program for Low-Income Children through Convenience Stores : Current Status and Nutritional Quality of Available Meal Items in Seoul.
10.5720/kjcn.2011.16.2.253
- Author:
Haelim CHOI
1
;
Sooyoun KWON
;
Jihyun YOON
Author Information
1. Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. hoonyoon@snu.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
low-income children;
convenience store;
nutritional quality;
meal support program
- MeSH:
Ascorbic Acid;
Child;
Electronics;
Electrons;
Humans;
Meals;
Nutritive Value
- From:Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
2011;16(2):253-264
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to investigate the current status of the Korean government-funded meal support program for low-income children through convenience stores and to evaluate the nutritional quality of the meal items available under the program. The POS data of three convenient stores where children had used their electronic meal cards most often in Seoul during January 2010 and the kinds and amounts of ingredients of the meals items available to the children were obtained from the headquarter of the convenient stores. A total of 5,081 transactions by 693 children included in the POS data was analyzed. In addition, nutritional contents of meal items, which were meal boxes (11 kinds), kimbab (13 kinds), rice balls (27 kinds), inari sushi (1 kind), and sandwiches (26 kinds), were analyzed with Can Pro 3.0. The results showed that children had purchased flavored-milk products most often. Children tended to purchase meal items together with drinks (60.9% of transactions), but some purchased drinks (27.6%) or meal items only (11.5%). Except for meal boxes, none of the meal items satisfied 1/3 of Estimated Energy Requirements of the 9-11 year-old boys per day. The average energy contents of different kinds of meal boxes, kimbabs, rice balls, and sandwiches were 619, 357, 200, and 380 kcal, respectively, and the energy content of a package of Inari sushi was 457 kcal. Vitamin C amount was found to be deficient in all the meal items, compared to 1/3 of Recommended Intake of the 9-11 year-old boys per day. The results of this study could be useful to develop nutritionally appropriate meal items for the convenient stores participating in the government-funded meal support program for children from low-income families.
