1,000th Hope Kitchen gets cooking in Shanghai

A charity program designed to provide a safe and nutritional diet for rural school pupils saw its 1,000th Hope Kitchen unveiled in Shanghai on Tuesday.

The Hope Kitchen program, jointly initiated by the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) and Mondelez China in 2009, has benefited 450,000 students in 1,000 schools from 28 provinces by providing them kitchen facilities to cook safe and nutritionally balanced meals, said Yao Wen, vice-secretary-general of CYDF.

The 1,000th kitchen was set up at the Haihong Primary School on Chongming island in Shanghai. Yao said in the future the project will aim to educate rural teachers and pupils with knowledge on food safety and nutrition.

Mondelez China, formerly Kraft Foods China, also donated 30,000 boxes of biscuits to the Shanghai Young Volunteers Association to help disadvantaged families in Shanghai.

Since 2009, more than 17 enterprises and philanthropic organizations have sponsored the Hope Kitchens, according to the CYDF.