[Weekender] [K

At around noon on a Friday, hundreds of students filed through the cafeteria at Changdeok Girls’ Middle School in Jung-gu, central Seoul, as they took a school canteen food tray, spoon and chopsticks, quickly scanning the day’s lunch menu offerings.

One at a time, the students loaded their trays with fish cake soup, bibimbap, chocolate breadsticks and a mango popsicle for dessert. These school lunches resembled delicious-looking home-cooked meals.

“It’s not mass-produced, reheated food. (The school) provides nutritious yet delicious lunches every day with different options to meet the dietary needs of students. (The lunches) also go easy on the salt,” Kim Young-hwa, the principal of Changdeok Girls’ Middle School, told The Korea Herald.

To make it all happen, the school cafeteria personnel arrive early in the morning to open the cafeteria and prepare the meals, Kim said, adding that good food is just as important as studying for growing kids.