On September 17, the early autumn hills of northeastern Sichuan were veiled in light mist. A charity visit team composed of representatives from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce, YUM CHINA, and the China Foundation for Rural Development, along with journalists and volunteers, crossed rolling mountain ridges to reach Yilong Primary School, located 60 kilometers from Yilong county town in Feng'ensi Village. This nine-year rural school welcomed the "Good Food Today" themed charity visit event.

At the event, Zhang Jie, member of the Yilong County Party Standing Committee and deputy county head, delivered opening remarks, welcoming the charity visit team on behalf of the county party committee and county government. He noted that over the past three years, the "Donate One Yuan — Rural School Kitchen Renovation" charity project has equipped 38 schools in Yilong County with kitchen facilities, benefiting more than 16,000 children. The new standardized kitchen equipment has precisely addressed the practical needs of rural schools and effectively improved school meal conditions. Yilong County will make good use of and properly manage every "love kitchen," and he expressed hope that students would always hold a grateful heart, study diligently, and give back to their alma mater and society in the future.

Principal Jiang Junping of Yilong Primary School also expressed sincere gratitude on behalf of all teachers and students. He acknowledged that before the kitchen renovation, ensuring meals for hundreds of children had always been a major concern for the school. "Now that the school kitchen equipment has been renewed, the efficiency of cafeteria meal service has significantly improved, and the children can enjoy hot, nutritious meals on time."

A representative from YUM CHINA Chengdu reviewed the project's journey in Yilong. In 2024, with strong support from a Ministry of Commerce official stationed in Yilong, the project was launched in the county. The durable and practical love kitchens have turned small acts of kindness into everyday warmth on campus. This year, under the theme "Good Food Today," the project entered a dual-track phase of "hardware renovation plus food education development." Participants not only witnessed the results of kitchen renovations but also brought food education classes.

A representative from the China Foundation for Rural Development stated that since its launch in 2008, the project has spanned 19 years, raising over 280 million yuan in donations, mobilizing more than 150 million public participants, and receiving the China Charity Award — the highest government honor in China's charity sector. In the future, the foundation will continue to deepen cooperation with all parties so that more rural children can benefit.

At the event, a "three-year look-back" three-school cloud connection was particularly heartwarming. On the large screen, the main venue at Yilong Primary School appeared simultaneously with two branch venues at Tumen Primary School and Shuangsheng Primary School. Tumen Primary School, which completed its kitchen renovation in 2024, showcased well-maintained and smoothly operating equipment after two years of use. Shuangsheng Primary School, which completed renovation in 2025, shared scenes of daily cafeteria operations, with teachers and students describing the changes brought by warm meals. When teachers and students from the three schools waved and greeted each other through the screen, warm applause broke out on site. From kitchens "newly built" to equipment "well used" to "continuous renewal," three years of charitable achievements became tangible and warm in this "cloud" gathering.

Representatives from YUM CHINA's KFC and Pizza Hut brands in the Sichuan-Chongqing market presented small gifts to students at the venue. The children loudly said, "Thank you, uncles and aunties," their clear young voices echoing through the hall.

After experiencing the warmth of the "cloud gathering," the charity visit team conducted an on-site visit to the newly renovated love kitchen at Yilong Primary School. A school representative introduced that Yilong Primary School currently has 563 students, with 1,017 daily meal servings. After the equipment renovation, cafeteria efficiency improved significantly. "We used to cook with natural gas stoves, now we use induction cookers. The heat is easier to control, and it's faster and more convenient," the cafeteria manager said with a smile, pointing at the new equipment.

At lunchtime, the charity visit team dined with teachers and students in the cafeteria. The tables featured a balanced mix of meat and vegetables, with steaming hot food. A fourth-grade student took a bite of rice, looked up, and said seriously, "The school food is delicious. There's meat and vegetables every day. I like braised pork with carrots the most!"

Kitchen renovation represents the enhancement of "hard power," while food education is the cultivation of "soft power." It is also a vivid practice of the project's阶梯-style upgrading from "eating enough" to "eating well" to "eating smartly."

That afternoon, two parallel nutrition-themed classes became another highlight of the event. In the nutrition education open class, Zeng Xiaoqing, a chief dietitian from the Clinical Nutrition Department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, used the children's balanced diet pagoda to teach students about balanced meals and the combination of meat and vegetables. Using the "traffic light snacks" classification, she taught everyone to distinguish healthy snacks from high-oil, high-sugar snacks. The class included fun quizzes and hands-on food card activities. Students eagerly raised their hands to answer questions and enthusiastically discussed the nutritional value of different foods. From listening and learning to hands-on practice, the concept of scientific eating was subtly planted in the children's minds. "I used to think that as long as I was full, it was fine. Today I learned that eating involves so much knowledge. From now on, I'll eat more vegetables and fewer snacks," a fourth-grade boy said after class.

In another classroom, musician Luo Mi delivered a unique music-and-nutrition integrated class for the children. This charity visit specially created an original AI song on the theme of food education titled "Good Food Today." In class, the teacher led the children in reading classical poetry, exploring traditional dietary wisdom, and learning to sing the song together. Clear and tender singing voices echoed through the classroom, blending music, Chinese classical culture, and dietary nutrition concepts, making food education knowledge vivid and lively. A volunteer who participated in the class was deeply moved: "Using music to teach children about nutrition is very engaging."

At the discussion session, guests, enterprises, the rural development foundation, media, and school representatives engaged in in-depth exchanges and offered suggestions on long-term campus kitchen maintenance, food education curriculum promotion, and the implementation of charitable resources, working together to improve rural campus meal security.

A leader from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce said at the discussion that through this "three-year look-back," we have seen the tangible changes brought by love kitchen hardware renovations and have come to better understand the need to closely combine kitchen quality improvement with food education promotion. We must translate the "good deeds" of charity into the "good food" in children's bowls and wholeheartedly safeguard the healthy growth of rural children.

It is reported that since its launch in 2008, over the past 19 years, the "Donate One Yuan" project has consistently adhered to the concept of small-amount charity. It has raised over 280 million yuan in donations, attracted more than 150 million donations, covered 101 counties across 17 provinces, provided over 60 million nutritious meals to rural children, built more than 1,700 modern love kitchens, and directly benefited over one million rural children. From nutritious meal supplements for rural children to standardized love kitchen renovations, and now to the dual-track approach of hardware and food education, the "Donate One Yuan" project has continuously upgraded in response to the growing needs of rural children over 19 years. It has now developed a rural children's nutrition improvement charity model featuring "sustainable fundraising plus standardized hardware renovation plus systematic food education implementation plus government-enterprise collaborative co-construction."

In addition, from August 17 to September 30, YUM CHINA's four major brands — KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and LAVAZZA — will launch "Donate One Yuan" charity meal sets, covering diverse daily dining consumption scenarios. During the campaign, for every charity meal set sold, YUM CHINA will donate one yuan to the China Foundation for Rural Development's "Donate One Yuan — Rural School Kitchen Renovation" project. Meanwhile, Tencent Charity will contribute an additional one yuan (with a total support cap of 500,000 yuan), jointly supporting rural love kitchen renovation and nutrition food education implementation.

In the future, the project will continue to transform every act of kindness into daily good food for rural children, supporting children's healthy growth and rural revitalization, allowing kindness to continuously gather and enabling "good deeds" and "good food" to meet halfway.