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This cold wave is approaching more severely for our neighbors in need.
In particular, while the number of people who donate or volunteer at soup kitchens has decreased recently, the cost of food ingredients continues to rise, making it difficult to even prepare meals.
Reporter Kim Deok-hyun covered this story.
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A soup kitchen in Nowon-gu, Seoul.
There is about an hour left until lunchtime, but it is crowded with people trying to warm up early.
The time to go here has become faster as the cold weather, which drops below -10 degrees Celsius, has increased the burden of heating.
[Lim Chun-sik/Director of Peace House: I only light the fire during the day.
Because the price of gas goes to about 500,000 to 600,000 won a month...
.]
The bigger problem is that preparing meals for 30 to 40 people a day is becoming increasingly difficult.
[Stabilizer/Peace House Volunteer: You have to put it on and off when you go to the market.
Because things are expensive.
I paid 2,100 won for each tofu.
Now you have to pay 3,000 won to buy it.
I hesitate to buy tofu.]
Compared to before Corona 19, donation items have plummeted to 1/10, but knowing that free meals in winter are more desperate, the operator, a retired professor, is continuing the operation with his own funds.
Other soup kitchens in the metropolitan area are in a similar situation.
[Lee Hwa-yong/Chief of Sharing Fence: After Corona, there is almost no help.]
[Ko Young-bae/Wongaksa Soup Kitchen Secretary General: I think there will be a difficult part to keep enduring.
It is a pity that we cannot receive all (visitors).]
We share warmth by delivering lunch boxes directly to residents of small lodging villages who are unable to find a soup kitchen due to health problems.
[I can't keep going.
My back hurts and my legs hurt.
(Because it is delivered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Every day.) If you don't come, you won't be able to eat...
.]
After one meal is solved, worries about a single briquette continue.
Briquettes, which cost 800 won per sheet last year, rose to 1,000 won this year.
The double whammy of the cold wave and the waterside is making its way even more coldly to soup kitchens and jjokbang villages.
(Video coverage: Yoon Hyung, Video editing: Park Ji-in
)
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