Recently, community canteens (社区食堂) have become popular among young people. At first, community canteens mostly served old people. As the elderly may face challenges in cooking, and many young people cannot cook, these canteens have become perfect places for the two generations (一代人) to become meal friends. They can have lunch and dinner within a 10-minute walk, or the community workers can bring the dishes to them.

For only 20 yuan, Fang Wenjing could buy her lunch at a community canteen, which included a meat dish, a vegetable dish and a bowl of rice. “The dishes have a home-cooked taste, just as I expected. The canteen is also clean,” said Fang.

Now the number of young people who’d like to eat in community canteens increases rapidly. Almost 70 percent of its customers are young people. This also encourages community canteens to think of creative ways to provide food and make things easier for people. A canteen in Beijing’s Lugu Community brings out buffet-style (自助模式) dishes. The dishes are sold at 2.48 yuan per 100 grams. This price is lower than the restaurant nearby. A canteen at the Zhanongkou Community in Zhejiang province recently introduced “blind box”. They cost just 6 yuan but have one meat dish and a vegetarian dish. To keep what’s inside each box a surprise, stickers (贴纸) are placed over the see-through top to cover the “main dish”. The “blind boxes” often sell out very quickly.

The rise of community canteens is impossible without the efforts of local governments. The government provides support for these canteens, either by providing free space or reducing water and electricity costs. There are now more than 6,700 community canteens in China. And many cities are responding to the call to build service canteens in their communities.

Have you ever thought of what life is like for older people, especially for those who live alone? Can they get help when they need it?

Six grade-10 students from Beijing 101 Middle School looked deeper at this question and wrote a proposal (提案) to the China Youth Model Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. They found that most nursing homes couldn’t satisfy the old people, so they advised to build more seniors’ service stations in communities. They also gave suggestions for how governments, neighborhoods and hospitals can work together to make this happen.

________. It offers things like daytime care, cooking, cleaning and friendship to seniors who live in their own homes. The students surveyed more than 1,100 people, about 90 percent of whom said they would prefer to use the stations’ services to moving into a nursing home. However, there are not enough of these stations, and many don’t run very well.

The six students came up with a solution after reading more than 60 related studies, interviewing 108 people and visiting 25 different organizations. Their proposal beat out almost 100 others to win the Best Proposal Award in 2021.

“This experience allows me to understand the responsibilities of us young people. Also I see the light and potential in us,” said Xu Wanqing, one of the students. “Participating in the China Youth Model CPPCC has been good for students,” agreed their teacher and adviser Li Jie, “They’ve grown their civic awareness, as well as gotten more confidence in our society since they’re seen how they can contribute (贡献) to it themselves.”

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