President SUNG Nak-in (right) and President of Student Council JOO Mu-yeol is having 1,000 won breakfast at Student Center

Today, there is not much you can do with one dollar. In places like Seoul where consumer prices seem to be continuously on the rise, one dollar alone has very little purchasing power. But at Seoul National University, 1,000 KRW, less than one dollar is enough to have a nice meal – that is, when the"Eat Breakfast Movement" starts on June 1.

Seoul National University recently decided to offer students a breakfast meal for just 1,000 won, which is equivalent to slightly less than one US Dollar. This menu will be available in the Student Center Cafeteria (Cafeteria No. 1) at 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., with the aim of having fewer students skip breakfast due to busy schedules. Such decision was officially announced on May 13. SNU Cooperative, the non-profit corporation in charge of most cafeterias at SNU, plans to initiate this project.

Menu B is the cheapest and relatively simple cafeteria meal options in SNU, consisting of rice, soup and three different side dishes. For the past 10 years, Menu B of the Student Center Cafeteria has been offered to students for 1,700 won. Despite its low price however, the actual production cost of Menu B is about 2,100 won, thus the quality of the meal is reasonably decent. With this originally 2,100 won meal soon-to-be provided at 1,000 won for breakfast, SNU Cooperative is expecting 200-300 million won of deficit per year.

Students are getting menu B at the Student Center

Even without this newly planned 1,000 won meal, the cafeteria business was already a source of deficit for SNU Cooperative because most cafeteria menus at SNU are already considered to be economical compared to those of many other universities in Korea. Until now, the deficit was balanced by raising the meal cost for nonmembers of the SNU community and gains from other sectors that the Cooperative operates, such as the souvenir shop. Although lowering the price of the Student Center Menu B to 1,000 won during breakfast time will result in even more losses, SNU Cooperative believes that students should be able to have affordable meals at least in school cafeterias. Especially because eating breakfast is important for the students' health, SNU Cooperative is not hesitant about tolerating an additional amount of deficit in exchange for the healthier diet of SNU students.

Perhaps it is interesting that SNU would lower its cafeteria meal price, when raising the prices to resolve existing deficits would be a more logical decision. Nonetheless, the seemingly unreasonable"Eat Breakfast Movement" is a part of SNU's objective to cultivate good, talented individuals. Other aspects of this objective include offering scholarships and living expenses to more than 700 students from low-income families.

LEE Kyusun, Head of Operations at SNU Cooperative, expressed that the 1,000 won breakfast menu will not be a temporary event."The project will be operated for at least 2-3 years, until many students get into the habit of eating breakfast regularly. So far, there are no plans of increasing the price any time soon."

Written by YOON Jiwon, SNU English Editor, jiwonyoon@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr