Taipei mayor praises school lunch as pupil asks for more sweet soup

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an joined students for lunch at Jingmei Elementary School as the city prepared to introduce free school meals in the 2026 academic year.

The featured meal included squid, fried rice and cabbage. A nutritionist showed students how to eat the squid by making an opening and removing its cartilage first. Chiang praised the ingredients as fresh and the meal as delicious.

A sixth-grade student, surnamed Feng, said school lunches had become tastier and more nutritious than the meals previously eaten at an after-school care center. She also said students generally liked sweet soup and hoped it would appear on the menu more often.

Principal Kang Yen-yu said serving squid challenged the children but created an opportunity for food education. She said the school should not choose only convenient options such as fish fillets when other ingredients can help students learn about food. The parent association chairwoman said families were satisfied and that eating lunch at school on half-days eased the burden of preparing meals.

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School lunch has become tastier, and it is more nutritious than what I used to eat at the after-school care center.