◀ Anchor ▶
‘Babfor’, which has been providing free meals to the underprivileged for 35 years, is in a situation where it may have to stop offering free meals.
This is because the district office said that if the building is not demolished today, it will impose a forced payment of nearly 300 million won tomorrow.
Reporter Kim Jung-woo covered the story.
◀ Report ▶
Old people in heavy coats line up in front of the soup kitchen, huddled up in the cold.
There are no seats in the canteen before serving.
There are 5 minutes left for the service to begin.
The cafeteria was full of people waiting to receive free meals.
About 700 elderly people have come since early morning to have a meal.
[임도화]
“Can’t you give me more browned rice? I have to eat both. I arrived early in the morning. They left at 6.”
Babfor has been providing free meals for 35 years since 1988.
However, on the 16th, Dongdaemun-gu’s office notified Babfor that it would impose a mandatory performance fee of 280 million won if all buildings were demolished and not rebuilt.
The reason was that the building erected in June last year to increase capacity was an illegal expansion.
However, Babfor had reached an agreement with the city on the content of the “expansion building donation to Seoul city” in January.
[최일도/’밥퍼’ 이사장]
“After the permit was granted, the district office said, ‘When are you going to tear this one down and build a new one?’
Seoul City’s explanation is the same.
However, the ward office is still stubborn, saying there have been more than a thousand complaints in the form of “getting rid of obnoxious structures” ahead of the completion of large-scale apartments nearby.
[동대문구청 관계자]
“Residents who have endured the sacrifices object at this point, but should I continue to go? The fact that our children go to school there is in itself…”
However, lunch boxes are provided to users belonging to Dongdaemun-gu, and users in other regions are not the responsibility of the district.
[동대문구청 관계자]
“Standing in line to feed meals, these days, a social work job like that is not a social work job…”
Not only Babfor, which was thrust into the crisis of the meal service suspension, but also the city of Seoul is said to have sent an objection to the Dongdaemun-gu office.
This is Kim Jeong-woo from MBC News.
Video Coverage: Lee Ji-ho / Video Editing: Min Kyung-tae
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