The Seoul Metopolitan Government has won an honor at the 10th awards of the Global Forum of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. Shown is a photo of the winners taken on Oct. 15 in Milan, Italy. (Seoul Metropolitan Government)

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has received global recognition for its efforts to provide children with healthy meals.

The city on Oct. 16 announced that it won the day before the top honor for Sustainable Diets and Nutrition at the 10th anniversary global forum of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact in Milan, Italy.

The pact is a global agreement with 336 member cities in 95 countries. Based on the principle of creating a fair and sustainable food system from production to consumption, it honors outstanding cities every two years.

Seoul was recognized for its systematic approach, public nature and scalability of a municipal project to create an environment for healthy school meals for preschool students.

This project follows a policy for running Centers for Children's Foodservice Management to provide a standardized management system for nutrition and hygiene for young children's cafeterias without nutritionists.

The city has 25 such centers in autonomous districts to regularly manage meals and snacks, monitor hygiene, offer education on nutrition for children, and provide training for cooks and child care teachers at over 4,800 children's cafeterias.

aisylu@korea.kr