'No meat, no eggs': Government launches fresh food delivery to combat rural 'food deserts'

As grocery stores disappear from depopulating towns and villages, deepening what experts call "food desertification" and making fresh produce increasingly hard to come by, the government is launching a full-scale fresh food delivery project.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety held a launch ceremony Thursday for the fresh food delivery project at the Uiseong Youth Center in Uiseong-gun, North Gyeongsang Province. The ministry said the initiative aims to guarantee residents' basic right to food and improve living conditions in underserved areas.

The project delivers and sells fresh food — including meat, eggs and dairy products — to elderly residents in logistics-vulnerable areas where access to food retail stores is difficult.

According to the 2020 Census of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, an estimated 27,609 of the country's 37,563 administrative villages — or 73.5 percent — have no retail stores, leaving residents struggling to do their grocery shopping.

A 2024 survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on travel distances to grocery stores found that rural residents needed an average of 14.4 minutes by car to reach a store, compared with 11.1 minutes in mixed urban-rural cities and 3.9 minutes in urban areas — meaning rural residents travel 3.7 times longer than their urban counterparts.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is currently running a pilot program called a mobile market that travels to vulnerable rural villages to deliver and sell groceries and daily necessities.

Of the 10 statutory villages in Haebo-myeon, Hampyeong-gun, South Jeolla Province — where the pilot is under way — seven have no retail stores, and residents in some villages must drive more than 20 minutes to buy daily necessities.

A report by the National Assembly Research Service titled "Food desertification and weakening food accessibility: what are the policy alternatives?" found that food desertification — driven by population decline and aging — is advancing faster in towns and villages than in urban neighborhoods, and faster in rural villages than in towns that still have commercial hubs.

Fresh food consumption is a key factor in preventing chronic disease and maintaining health, making it an issue that demands a policy response.

The report warned that elderly residents in towns and villages who must travel long distances to shop tend to rely more heavily on processed foods that do not spoil easily. It recommended linking the issue to regional public service delivery programs targeting economically and health-vulnerable populations.

In response, the Ministry of Interior and Safety's fresh food delivery project will draw on the Rural-Urban Mutual Prosperity Fund and Kia's own resources to provide dedicated vehicles and stable operational funding.

Local governments will be responsible for building the delivery infrastructure and providing linked welfare services. On that foundation, community-based social cooperatives and the Green Umbrella Children's Foundation will handle the actual delivery operations.

The ministry plans to scale the delivery service model — validated in Uiseong-gun — nationwide. As a first step, the project will expand to Sunchang-gun in North Jeolla Province in the second half of this year, selected through a competitive grant program to promote collaboration between depopulating regions and businesses.

Vice Minister Kim Min-jae said the food desertification problem "goes beyond a food access issue for residents of underserved areas — it is a symbolic case that shows the reality of regional depopulation and deteriorating living conditions." He added that the ministry would "ensure everyone can receive a supply of fresh food through this project and establish it as a leading model for improving living conditions in depopulating regions."