Rural schoolchildren get hot lunches

Students from Pingying Primary School now get a warm lunch with meat or eggs every school day. “Our children can finally say goodbye to cold potatoes and cold rice as lunch,” said Zhang Zhengrong, the principal.

The school in remote mountains of Southwest China’s Guizhou province has six classes and 255 students.

“Many students have to walk more than an hour to school every day, and almost half of the families have an annual per capita income of only 700 to 800 yuan ($111 to 126),” Zhang told China Daily.

The free lunch program is supported by Micro-Foundation, an organization set up in April last year by Micro-Planning Group and the Guizhou Youth Development Foundation.

“To date, we have received more than 60,000 yuan from the fund,” said Zhang.

Micro-Foundation sponsors lunch programs at seven primary schools, serving more than 1,300 students in Guizhou. It raises money via most popular micro blogs, BBS, the online marketplace Taobao and online payment platform Alipay.

The public foundation, dedicated to improving the condition of primary schools in less-developed regions, had received $2.8 million yuan in donations by mid April, said Zhu Jing, its operation director. “The smallest donation was 5 cents and the largest 100,000 yuan.”

“We are preparing to start lunch programs in 12 other schools. Then we will benefit more than 4,000 students at 19 schools,” Zhu said.

Micro-Foundation publishes details of the lunch program online, including the project management and financial status.

Donors can log in to check details of their gift.

The public can supervise the program by and is given access to audit reports and donation channels. The online platform also lists the time, amount and uses of funds and administration expenses.