Parents in Kaohsiung are now calling the city government to resume the free-lunch program for all elementary students. In response to the request, with the municipality upgrade, the city government said that total cost of the service would be increased to 1.3 billion NT dollars, which is beyond their budget at this point. However, the government did guarantee that they will not cancel the financial assistance for underprivileged families.

This tasty lunch is appreciated by many elementary school children.

The free lunch program in Kaohsiung benefits thousands of children though the policy ended last December.

With the merger of Kaohsiung County and City, parents have to pay their own money for these meals.

The city government said that before the merger, Kaohsiung's free lunch program cost over 300 million NT$, and with the increase of 74,000 students, the cost of the program will climb to 1.33 billion NT$ as they can no longer afford it.

However, the city stressed that subsidies for the disadvantaged children will be expanded with 100 million NT being spent, though some parents think that monthly school lunches of around 500 to 600 NT$ will be a big help to many families as they hope to restore this free lunch program.

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