The government has approved requests by South Korean civic groups to send flour to North Korea for the first time in eight months.

The Unification Ministry said Monday it approved the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation to deliver 300 tons of flour to nurseries, kindergartens and children’s hospitals in Sariwon, Hwanghae Province on Tuesday via an overland route in Gaeseong.

The ministry also approved the Roman Catholic Church of South Korea to deliver 100 tons of flour on Thursday.

The last time the government approved civic groups’ provision of flour to the North was on November 20th last year when the Korean Methodist Church delivered 36 tons of flour.

The government had banned the provision of flour aid to the communist state since the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island last November.