School in Yunnan provides free meals for students by renting farmland

Students at Jingwai Mingde Elementary School in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province, during a farm labor class under the guidance of teachers and the headmaster Lei Yingfei on Sunday, January 6, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

An elementary boarding school in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province, has been providing free nutritious meals for its students by renting nearby farmland and having the students take part in agricultural production, reports Xinhua News Agency.

With the help of local education authorities and local enterprises, in 2010 the Jingwai Mingde Elementary School rented eight hectares of farmland around the school and hired six local farmers to take care of the fields.

Students at Jingwai Mingde Elementary School students in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province, queue up to receive a free meal on Sunday, January 6, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

The school plants vegetables and raises pigs and chickens. Some of what is produced is sold, and the money spent towards improving the school's infrastructure.

The rest of the produce is used to feed the students, many of whom are left-behind children whose parents have left the rural area to find work in a city.

During two weekly labor classes, the students spend time on the school's farm learning how to plant the vegetables and raise the animals that they eat.

Students at Jingwai Mingde Elementary School students in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province, queue up to receive a free meal on Sunday, January 6, 2019. [Photo: VCG]

"This is not simply a farm. This relates to what the whole school, the teachers and students, can eat and also the quality of life of the 1,054 students," said the school's headmaster Lei Yingfei.

He said that by working on the farm, the students gain a better understanding of life and nature.