More than 5,000 people visited the Bean Cuisine Exhibition held at the Seoul Adventist Hospital playground on October 14 and 15. The event, aimed at promoting the health benefits of a vegetarian diet, was sponsored by the Korean Chapter of the International Temperance Association and Korean Women’s Association of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This is their third annual vegetarian cuisine exhibition.

Sook Ja Song, president of the Korean Women’s Association of the Adventist Church, said she hoped the event would “enhance public awareness and preference for vegetarian diets.” In the exhibition, there were 100 kinds of food made of beans, which were presented by 100 volunteers, including bean steak, bean pizza, bean cake, bean tofu, and bean salad.

A cooking class related to the exhibition was also conducted October 16 at the Seoul Adventist Hospital church. The class, attended by more than 250 people, was presented by Sue Radd, a nutritionist from Australia.

The Bean Cuisine Exhibition drew media attention, with two of the top four newspapers in Korea—Donga Ilbo and Joongang Ilbo—reporting on the event. A monthly magazine, Women Sense, also ran a story. Next year SBS broadcasting company, one of the three major television stations in the country, plans to broadcast “Health Digest,” including a program related to the Bean Cuisine Exhibition.

South Korea has a population of more than 47 million people. There are some 160,000 Adventist Church members in South Korea, who operate hospitals and health centers, schools, health food factories, and a publishing house.