▲ Jung Min-su, Director of Chamsae Bangatgan (Sparrow Mill)

Passion overcomes the cancer
Chamsae Bangatgan is a Korean rice cake specialist. It has been chosen for a state-funded educational institute in the micro-enterprise category for three years in a row for fostering talented future Korean rice cake specialists. Behind these great achievements lies the proactive engagement of the director Jung who introduced an effective Korean desert training program, initiated cooperation on Odae rice desert marketing and customer services with the Agricultural Technology Center Cheorwon and Sangju counties, and also promoted the products through home shopping and overseas channels for the last 10 years. Jung used to work as a cooking program PD but his father’s suffering from a cancer increased interest in healthy food which eventually led him to open a business in 2006. The training of Chamsae Bangatgan is now being taken place in 200 cultural centers and marts nationwide with the estimated 10,000 people have finished the courses; many of them are now working in the related organizations and companies with the first grade certificate of the fusion rice cake making. Despite the unfortunate incident that Jung also suffered from stomach cancer five years ago, the same cancer his father suffered from, it has never affected his passion in Korean rice cake and he is expected to receive good news of full recovery this August from the doctor. But the occasion made him give free Korean rice cake making classes for cancer patients at the Seoul Jungnang District Health Center.

Effective training system
Jung says that many of the students at Chamsae Bangatgan are housewives who have nothing to do with majoring in food and nutrition at university. So, it is remarkable that they obtained the first grade certificate. In other words, the certificate can encourage them to lead a startup. To meet the high demand for the courses, Jung has built a system that can enable the people anywhere to receive the courses which normally last a year. The system separates the administration from the instructors in order to maximize the effect of learning. Being an instructor does not require much but a housewife who obtained the first grade certificate can do it on the flexible rotation system of Chamsae Bangatgan. With this excellent training system, Jung has been able to supply the products to 6 home shopping channels in Korea, and to export the products to 14 countries in the world. 

Back Office Management System
The Back Office Management System of Chamsae Bangatgan is an innovative brainchild of Jung because it connects trainees to employment. Encouraged by this, Jung is planning to start a Korean rice cake café franchise in the future. For this, he is conceiving an idea of introducing nuts and DMZ cheese cake lines; the cheese is made in Cheorwon County. Jung has developed more than 2,500 rice cake recipes and dispatched talented trainees to 60 Agricultural Technology Centers nationwide.