Micro-charity successful in inspiring state program

(Ecns.cn) – The idea of a "Free Lunch" initiated by netizens has now turned into an official nationwide charity program, as 26 million students living in China's rural areas will soon start to relish warm and nutritious meals when they go to school.

On October 26, 2011, the State Council announced a decision to provide 16 billion yuan ($2.47 billion) from the central coffers every year to improve nutrition for rural students. It is being referred to as the Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Students at Compulsory Education Phase.

In the program, each school child will be subsidized with three yuan ($0.46) on a daily basis, and students from a total of 680 towns and counties will benefit from it.

This is seen as a typically successful example of the influence of a grassroots charity, in which a microblogging message widely forwarded first received considerable donations from each corner of the country and then developed into a charity activity that is now a state-level program.

It is believed that this may present another form of charity that combines the government and the public's efforts in a more cooperative way.

Unexpected responses from the government

In late March, Deng Fei, a journalist at the Phoenix Week, posted a message on his Sina Weibo microblog saying he wanted to build a canteen at a primary school in Southwest China's Guizhou Province. The message was relayed tens of thousands of times by his followers and received warm support from common individuals.

In just days, Deng registered the Free Lunch for Children Foundation under the China Social Welfare Education Foundation as one of its special funds, and launched a fundraising activity to help these kids. The activity basically has two angles: money donation and labor contribution.

Calculated by local school teachers and the foundation workers, a lunch for a child is three yuan. People can donate for a meal, a month's worth of meals, or for a year's worth of meals for children on the Internet.

Moreover, the foundation also planned to build dining halls for these rural students so that they can eat warm food easily. With the donations from warm-hearted common people, the first dining hall was completed on May 4, 2011, where students can now enjoy two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, an egg, and a bowl of soup at lunch.

On May 11, the People's Daily published an article praising this "Free Lunch" program and calling on the government to offer more support and take over the program. Of course, this has been the ultimate hope of Deng's team, because only with the support of the government can this program benefit as many impoverished rural students as possible.

What excited Deng was that many local governments, especially in the education sectors, approved of this program and showed an interest in cooperation. In Central China's Hunan Province, 41 schools in Xinhuang County are now benefiting from this program, and Deng said it is because the local government was willing to pay for one third of the "three yuan" plan, that is, one yuan for every student.

Though Deng had known that the government decided to initiate a "free lunch" pilot program for rural students in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region early in July, he was still surprised at the news that the program would be extended to a larger range and will benefit 26 million school children.