We tried to find out parents' satisfaction and needs for foodservice quality of the childcare centers with an intention of improving it. Self-completed questionnaires were randomly collected from the parents of children in 174 childcare centers around Asan and were analyzed. Most of respondents were mothers who were housewives with college degrees (69%) in their 30's (80%). They thought nutrition (50%) and food hygiene (43%) were the most important factors for decision. Eighty percent of parents recognized the strong relationship between foodservice quality and childrens' mental and physical development. Most centers (94%) were delivering menu notices home, so parents well recognized the center's foodservice situation and problems of their kids' eating habits. The parents' satisfaction scores were 3.26 out of 5-point scale. The biggest dissatisfaction was from no variation in menu, but remarkable appreciation was from the effect of foodservice on the correction for kids' unbalanced diet habit. They had demands for improvement of nutritious menu and professional nutrition teacher in charge of foodservice and nutrition education for children and also for parents.
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We investigated the foodservice sanitation status of the childcare centers in Chungnam Asan area to provide the information for sanitation guidelines and checklist in various operation types of childcare centers. Self-completed questionnaires were collected from the directors of 95 centers: national-public 9 (9.5%), corporation 10 (10.5%), private 52 (54.7%), and home care 24 (25.3%) types. The analyzed results are shown in foundation type; the investigated items are about critical hygienic problems and safety recognition level, presence of sanitation guideline, demand of dietian's employment and the role, hygienic management and education level, and the present and future of sanitary facility and equipment. From this study we found that home care center, which had low capacity, was comparatively poor at sanitation status, the use of hygienic standard and guideline, and safety recognition level. In our opinion, the use and application of same sanitation standard to any type and size of center is not appropriate and rational. The reestablishment of the sanitation guideline and checklist considering the conditions of various operation types would be necessary. Also periodic hygienic education by hygenic professionals, continuous parents' attention and cooperation of related government organizations are needed for improvement of foodservice sanitation status of childcare centers.
We investigated the foodservice management practices in various operation types of childcare centers in Asan, Chungnam Province, with the intention of improving the quality of foodservice and providing the basic information for establishing more effective and efficient foodservice model system. Self-completed questionnaires were collected from the directors of 174 child care centers. The statistical analysis was completed using SPSS Ver. 12.0 program. The followings are about the results of this study. Approximately 94.8% of the directors were women with the average age of 40.3. All of the investigated facilities executed foodservice; the facilities of 96.2% had been self-operated, 1.9% was contract-managed and the remaining 1.9% served delivered meal from outside. Only 20.0% of the investigated centers employed a dietitian. In most of the centers, meals were prepared in a conventional manner and approximately 85.3% of the centers are serving only snacks twice a day as a supplementary due to financial difficulties. Menu planner of the facilities, which have no dietitian was the director (35.8%) or the cook (25.7%). In most centers, the directors purchased the food materials (67.5%). Material inspection was done by the director (54.9%) or the cook (40.5%). However, home care centers did not inspect the food material. These results indicate that food service management guidelines need to be established by the facility type with the government control and financial support. Especially, dietitian employment and the efficient foodservice model system establishment are questions that confront us.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of foodservice managers in childcare centers and kindergartens for identifying the vulnerable areas of safety management. The foodservice managers in 1,144 of nationwide childcare centers and kindergartens were surveyed from May to October 2007 to answer a total 72 questions in areas of general characteristics, actual practice of foodservice management and safety management perception. Meals were served in 97.7% of surveyed facilities and 91.0% among them were self-operated. The hiring rate (27.8%) of dietitians in childcare centers was significantly lower than the rate (82.0%) of kindergartens. The needs of dietitian employment between childcare centers and kindergartens differed as 44.9% and 87.5%, respectively. In knowledge on food-borne illnesses, they have the wrong information in the field of season for frequent outbreak, major pathogens and foods causing food-borne illnesses. The food-borne illnesses (36.2%) were indicated as the major problem in foodservice facilities and the degree of risk exposure was considered as safe (70.1%). More than 70% of both facilities answered as sanitary in the status of personal hygiene. Only 38.0% recognized the Facility and Equipment Standard in the Childcare Law and Early Childhood Education Law. In preparation of meals and management of cooking processes, kindergarten scored significantly high compared to childcare centers (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01) while the necessity of standards was not different in both facilities. Among managers surveyed, 28.8% had taken food safety education from professional institutions and more than 80% in both facilities indicated the need of professional educations. These results suggest that it is necessary for the systematic sanitary education of foodservice managers by developing the sanitary management standard as well as the amendment of laws related foodservice in childcare centers and kindergartens.