Since its opening in September 2014, a vegetarian restaurant in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, has provided free lunches for nearly 130,000 people.
"Most of them are the elderly, taxi drivers, sanitation workers and migrant workers," said Li Qiuling, 51, one of the founders. "Every day we will prepare four different dishes, a soup and several kinds of staple food. Anyone can get enough food here without payment."
Four years ago, when Li visited Changchun, capital of Jilin province, she was deeply impressed by a scene she saw in a similar restaurant.
"People had lunch in the restaurant without making any noise and every dish was finished up," she said. "Since then, I was inspired to create a similar one."
After several months' preparation, she and 16 volunteers set up the restaurant.
Lunch is provided for about 150 people a day with an expenditure of about 500 yuan. Most of these costs are covered by the volunteers and also from donations by warm-hearted people from all walks of life.
"Now there are more than 200 volunteers working for the restaurant," Li said. "Every day, there will be eight volunteers on duty. Despite the heavy task, they never complain and always smile to the visitors because we all believe it's a great pleasure to make so many people feel warm."
Liu Qinghai, 76, comes to the restaurant almost every day and helps the volunteers do some cleaning work when he can.
"There are lots of elderly people. In fact, for most of us, there is no shortage of food, but we are lonely," he said. "In the restaurant, we can have lunch together, which can make us feel happy."
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