Busan education office to hold food allergy camp for elementary students

The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education announced Thursday that it will hold the "2026 Food Allergy Camp — We've Got This! Food Allergy" on Saturday at the Nutrition Education and Experience Center in Geumjeong-gu, targeting about 200 elementary school students in grades 1 through 3 with food allergies and their guardians.

The camp is an experience-based education program designed to give students with allergic reactions to specific foods — and their guardians — accurate knowledge about food allergies and help them build the skills to manage safe dietary habits.

The student program will run eight activity booths, starting with a food allergy puppet show titled "Aegi Dwaejiga Isaon Nal" (The Day the Little Pig Moved In), followed by a garden experience, a food label reading activity, a stress ball making session, a fruit bracelet making session, an allergy safety keyring making session, a school cafeteria food allergy game, and a nutrition meal experience. Through varied play and hands-on activities, students will learn to understand allergy-triggering foods and protect their own health.

The guardian program will offer a lecture by a food allergy specialist, an alternative-diet lecture and cooking class, and individualized nutrition counseling. The office also plans to provide practical at-home information through an exhibition of food allergy meal plans and educational materials, and to support healthy dietary management for students with food allergies through a pre-event survey and a Dietary Screening Test.

The Busan education office expects the camp to contribute to four goals: guaranteeing the health rights and safe school life of students with food allergies; strengthening food allergy management capabilities shared between home and school; improving understanding of alternative diets and school meals for students with food allergies; and fostering a food allergy-friendly school environment.

"Ongoing attention and cooperation between schools and families is above all essential for the health and safety of students with food allergies," Superintendent Kim Seok-jun said. "We will expand our support to create a safe school meal environment and promote student health."