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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Culture & Society

Chiayi County launches free school lunches, benefiting 27,600 students

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Chiayi County launched free school lunches for 27,600 students in public schools, including students at Chiayi Science Park Experimental High School and the junior division of Concordia Middle School.
  • The county will spend NT$342.24 million annually and raise the subsidy to NT$62 per meal.
  • Officials also highlighted renovated school toilets, including gender-friendly facilities at Xianghe Elementary School, and welcome activities for six first-graders at Songshan Elementary School.

Chiayi County began providing free school lunches as the new academic year opened, with 27,600 students set to benefit from the program. The county government will spend NT$342.24 million a year, while raising the subsidy for each meal to NT$62.

At Xianghe Elementary School, County Magistrate Weng Chang-liang and Education Department Director Lee Mei-hua visited the kitchen on the first day of school and ate lunch with students. The meal included multigrain rice, braised chicken legs, mixed scrambled eggs, sweet potato leaves, pork rib soup, apples, certified domestic soy milk and nuts.

Weng said the higher subsidy would give schools better conditions to plan varied menus, helping students eat nutritious meals while easing parents’ financial burden.

The county government raised the subsidy per meal in the hope that schools would have better conditions to plan diverse menus, so students can eat nutritious food and parents can feel reassured.

— Weng Chang-liangChiayi County magistrate explaining the purpose of the higher lunch subsidy.

Officials also presented improvements to aging school toilets. From 2015 to 2024, the county spent more than NT$352.92 million on renovations. It plans to invest another NT$283.95 million from 2025 to 2027, bringing total spending to more than NT$630 million for improvements at 97 schools and 99 school buildings.

Xianghe Elementary School is among the first schools to complete renovations this year. Its gender-friendly toilets do not divide facilities strictly by male and female categories. Instead, they offer squat, seated and standing fixtures, all with partitions and doors to protect privacy and safety.

At Songshan Elementary School in Minxiong Township, six new students took part in an orientation challenge organized by the principal and teachers. After completing activities, they received welcome gifts including books, hats, toothbrush sets, masks and flutes to support the school’s traditional Chinese orchestra.

We do not divide them by traditional male and female categories. We provide squat, seated and standing facilities so students can choose for themselves.

— Chen Chih-fengThe principal of Xianghe Elementary School describing its renovated gender-friendly toilets.
About this summary

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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