Korea Zinc shares summer quilts, samgyetang with vulnerable residents amid heat wave

Korea Zinc announced Wednesday that it provided summer quilt sets to vulnerable residents during the extreme heat season, while employees from the company and its affiliates volunteered to prepare samgyetang — a traditional Korean ginseng chicken soup — to mark the first of the three hottest days of summer. The initiative, carried out in partnership with the Korean Red Cross Seoul branch, aims to support the physical health and emotional well-being of vulnerable community members through the summer months.

The event, titled "2026 Extreme Heat Energy Save Campaign and Sambok Summer Heat (Beating the Heat with Samgyetang) with Korea Zinc," was held Tuesday at the Korean Red Cross Seoul branch's northern service center in Nowon-gu, Seoul. About 50 people attended, including Korea Zinc President Jeong Mu-gyeong, who heads the company's sustainable management division, Park Jong-geun, vice chairman of the Korean Red Cross Seoul branch, and employees from Korea Zinc and its affiliates — Axis IT, KG Trading and KZ Precision — as well as Red Cross volunteers.

The event opened with a ceremony to hand over support items for the "Extreme Heat Energy Save Campaign." Korea Zinc provides energy-saving supplies each year to help disaster-vulnerable households reduce heating and cooling costs during extreme heat and cold.

For this year's extreme heat season, the company donated 16 million won ($10,500) to the Korean Red Cross Seoul branch. The Red Cross used the funds to distribute summer quilt sets — comprising a summer quilt, pillow and pillowcase — to 430 vulnerable households across Nowon-gu, Jungnang-gu, Seongbuk-gu, Gangbuk-gu and Dobong-gu.

Korea Zinc and affiliate employees then took part in a volunteer session, cooking samgyetang and packaging seasonal fruit. Working alongside Red Cross volunteers, they participated in every step of the process: transporting and preparing ingredients, cooking, packaging fruit and attaching sticker labels to containers. The samgyetang and seasonal fruit prepared that day were delivered through Red Cross volunteers to 150 vulnerable households in Nowon-gu, Jungnang-gu and Seongbuk-gu.

"We hope the nourishing food and support items we prepared with care will help disaster-vulnerable neighbors stay healthy through the sweltering summer," Korea Zinc President Jeong said. "We will continue to carry out a wide range of sharing activities to help marginalized members of our community."

Park, the Red Cross Seoul branch vice chairman, said the meal-sharing event was organized to help residents vulnerable to climate disasters such as extreme heat build their strength and find emotional stability. "We will continue to actively link corporate social contribution activities to expand the safety net for the underprivileged," he added.

All 430 vulnerable households targeted by this year's extreme heat energy save campaign are registered participants in "Huimang Pungcha" (Hope Windmill), a nationwide program Korea Zinc sponsors to provide daily necessities to low-income households. In May, Red Cross volunteers delivered ready-to-eat meal sets and companion plant kits — funded by Korea Zinc — to 21,490 vulnerable households across the country through the program.

Meanwhile, Korea Zinc has been actively engaged in a range of corporate social responsibility initiatives, including donating 2.9 metric tons of white rice — 143 bags of 20 kilograms each, worth 10 million won — to the Ulju Southern Senior Welfare Center through its Onsan smelter.