[2026 Parliamentary Audit] Children's Cafeterias 100% Registered... But Only 43.2% of Social Welfare Cafeterias for Older Adults and People with Disabilities Are Registered

8,225 Facilities Unregistered... More Than Half Outside Oversight
31 Cities, Counties and Districts Nationwide Have “Zero” Registered Facilities

More than half of the cafeterias at small social welfare facilities used by older adults and people with disabilities, where no dietitian is assigned, are outside the government’s nutrition and hygiene management support system, a study has found.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Assemblyman So Byeonghun of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, as of June this year, only 6,251 of the 14,476 social welfare cafeterias eligible for registration were registered with meal service management support centers, a rate of 43.2%. The remaining 8,225 cafeterias (56.8%) are not covered by the centers’ oversight.

Rep. So Byeonghun of the Democratic Party of Korea, elected chair of the Health and Welfare Committee at the third plenary session of the National Assembly’s March extraordinary session on the 31st, delivers remarks upon his election. March 31, 2026. Photo by Kim Hyunmin.

Under current law, small social welfare facilities with fewer than 50 people are not required to assign a dietitian. Without registering with a meal service management support center, they face structural barriers to receiving professional hygiene inspections or meal planning and nutrition management tailored to older adults and people with disabilities.

However, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has not even determined how many people use the 8,225 unregistered facilities. It has also not conducted a specific analysis to determine whether the facilities have not applied for registration or whether the centers lack the budget or staff to support them.

Some have also raised concerns that actual support is not keeping pace with the growth in the number of facilities eligible for it. The number of facilities eligible for social welfare meal service support rose by 4,074, or 39.2%, from 10,402 last year to 14,476 as of June this year, while the number of registered facilities increased by just 560 over the same period.

There were also significant regional disparities. Sejong had the highest registration rate at 95.1%, followed by Daejeon at 84.9%, Gyeongsangbuk-do at 74.3%, Gwangju at 73.4% and Ulsan at 72.0%. By contrast, the rate was just 23.9% in Seoul. It was also low in the greater Seoul area, at 30.0% in Gyeonggi-do and 31.8% in Incheon. The number of unregistered facilities in Gyeonggi-do, Seoul and Incheon alone totaled 5,892.

Nationwide, 31 cities, counties and districts had facilities eligible for registration but no registered facilities at all. These included Dongdaemun-gu, Gwanak-gu and Yongsan-gu in Seoul, as well as Seongnam, Gunpo and Yeoju in Gyeonggi-do.

The figures also contrast with those for children’s cafeterias. Following a revision to the law requiring small cafeterias that meet certain criteria to register with support centers, all 34,238 children’s cafeterias eligible for registration had registered by the end of 2024, bringing the registration rate to 100%. By contrast, the registration rate for social welfare cafeterias was 37.2% at the same point and remained at 43.2% as of June this year.

“More than 8,200 social welfare facilities for older adults and people with disabilities remain outside the system’s oversight,” Assemblyman So Byeonghun said. “If making registration mandatory across the board is difficult right away, the government should establish a phased roadmap to require registration, starting with facilities serving vulnerable groups, as it did with children’s cafeterias.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.