hankyoreh

Seoul

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles exploring the effects of the economic downturn on South Korea’s underprivileged class.

“You don’t have to give me a lot of side dishes. Just give me a lot of rice.”

It was the afternoon of November 8, on the third floor of the offices of Naeireul Yeonun Jip (House for Opening Up the Future), located in Incheon’s Gyeyang-gu. “Cho,” a grandmother, aged 74, received her side dishes and let out a series of thank yous. Today’s side dishes are pickled cucumbers and squid salad. Cho lives with her husband, who is confined to his bed with paralysis over the lower half of his body. She said that she visits this place every day “because I’m afraid my husband lying down at home might starve to death.”

Here, a “food bank” and free meal kitchen are operated together, gathering rice and side dishes left over from school cafeterias and sharing them with residents. For three hours every afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m., they travel around to over 10 area schools and collect leftovers. At the free meal kitchen, over 100 elderly people who live alone solve their meal needs every day. “Du,” 66, eats two meals per day with the food provided there, and said, “Without places like that, people like us would have no choice but to starve to death.”

Private volunteer and food supply groups that support the poor are taking a direct hit as a result of the economic slump. While the numbers of people using these groups’ services has increased dramatically, sponsorship and donations have shrunk, and operating expenses are encountering triple and quadruple distress as the burden snowballs. Pyo Chang-sik, 29, a volunteer at the Incheon food bank, said, “Because prices have gone up, schools are basically giving small amounts of side dishes.” Pyo added, “Before, they gave out six or seven kinds of side dishes, but now it’s three at most.” Recently, it has even become commonplace for schools to be unable to supply the basic side dish of kimchi.

Last January, 180,000 items at a value of over 5 billion won (US$3.8 million) were donated to the Seoul Food Bank. But by last September, the amount had dropped by a huge margin, with 415 items valued at 28 million won. Seoul Food Bank department chief Lee Sang-no explained, “We depend on companies for the majority of Food Bank items, but when the economy is uncertain, companies match their production to it, leading to a major drop in the amount of items donated.”

In contrast, the number of users of food banks and food markets is increasing rapidly. In Seoul, the number of users rose from 19,742 in January to 24,901 last September, an increase of 26 percent. Seo Mal-suk, 50, is an earner in the lowest income bracket who lives in Nowon-gu, Seoul. “I go once a month to get items from the food market, but it’s impossible to get the things I really need like instant noodles and wheat flour,” Seo said.

An official at the Nowon-gu food market said, “We have such a lack of donated items that employees at the district office recently pooled their money to bring items in. But the number of users has even gone up, and it’s ridiculously insufficient.”

Homeless people and elderly people living alone are having difficulties finding even one meal. The number of people receiving fixed meals at Incheon’s Naeireul Yeonun Jip has increased around four times from 20 early this year to 80. But in October, the number of donated items brought here had decreased by almost half from the over 24 million won in items donated last January. Donations of rice that were once regular have almost disappeared, and this year there have been none of the people who used to bring in boxes of fruit on every major holiday. Lee Jun-mo, a minister who works at Naeireul Yeonun Jip, said, “Even last year, rice donations were enough that it was possible to supply rice at the kitchen, but this year we’ve mostly had to buy it.” Lee adds, “As the economy gets worse, it seems like the psychological burden increases not only for the poor but for the people who used to help them.”

Places on weak financial footing are in danger of having to close their doors. Yu Won-ok, director of the House of God, which provides free meals at Seoul Station, said, “Even the 30 million won we got from taking out part of the church’s deposit last June ran out quickly because of operating expenses.” Yu sighed, “It seems ten times harder than during the time of the foreign exchange crisis” of 1997. She added, “When they say ‘It’s too difficult, it’s too difficult’ too much, I worry that even the support there was before is decreasing.”

Problems with operating expenses inevitably lead to a decrease in the quality of the food. “Kim,” 73, eats meals here regularly, and said, “Lately it’s hard to even look at the meat, and the side dishes are not as good as before.” Kim added, “The fish they sometimes serve here has been reduced to half portions.” As volunteers have become scarcer and scarcer, one free kitchen in Incheon has had to employ two workers since last September to prepare and serve side dishes. Their expenses will now include an additional 400,000 won a month and 9.6 million won a year in personnel costs.

The situation is worse in the provinces. An official at Cham Sarang Swimteo in Wonju, Gangwon-do, said, “As the economy gets worse, there is a ‘rich getting richer, poor getting poorer’ phenomenon with volunteer groups as well, since people donate a lot to the groups they notice.” The official added, “Big volunteer groups probably haven’t suffered a major blow, but the smaller local groups are in danger of having to close their doors.”

Park Sam-geun, a minister at Seonhan Iut, which provides free meals in Pohang, said, “The burden of supporting and encouraging self-sufficiency in the poor cannot be borne entirely by the government or local governments.” Park expressed concerns that “if this situation continues, even the ‘poverty class safety net’ at the nongovernmental level will have difficulties doing its job.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/320907.html