Abstract
The principal objectives of this study were to evaluate the space, equipment, and institution rate by functional area, and to suggest appropriate types, numbers, and equipment capacity by school foodservice size for optimal employee job performance and efficiency. Data were collected and administered by 263 dietitians who attended elementary and middle schools in Gyeonggi Province, and the data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Among a total of 72 respondents who provided usable data, 31 (48.6%) respondents were nutrition teachers and 37 (51.4%) were part-time dietitians. The majority of the respondents reported that their foodservices were self-operating types (94.4%), and 8 meals out of 10 meals provided over a 2-week period were served as normal meals, defined as meals consisting of Bab, Kook, Kimchi, and 3 side dishes (73.6%). The mean kitchen space was $186.25\;m^2$ for 500 meals/day, $269.7\;m^2$ for 501 to 1,000 meals/day, $249.1\;m^2$ for 1001 to 1500 meals/day, and $274.87\;m^2$ for 1,500 or more meals/day. The mean space of functional areas was $11.52\;m^2$ for office, $12.63\;m^2$ for storeroom, $9.55\;m^2$ for receiving area, $27.23\;m^2$ for pre-preparation area, $149.9\;m^2$ for cooking area, $18.33\;m^2$ for assembly/service area, $45.50\;m^2$ for dishwashing area, and $17.20\;m^2$ for locker room. Only two pre-preparation and cooking spaces increased significantly with increasing size of school foodservice (p<0.05). Office, cooking area, and locker room were allocated in all foodservices. However, the pre-preparation area (68.7%), receiving area (56.5%), assembly/service area (38.1%), and dishwashing area (37.7%) were lowly installed in the surveyed facilities. Through a focus group meeting discussing the results of this study, appropriate equipment and its dimensions were suggested according to functional areas and foodservice scales. Future studies will be necessary to allocate the appropriate space by functional area with the proposed equipment requirements for optimally efficient decision making in equipment purchasing.
