The Baozhong Happiness Canteen spreads its aroma, and the happiness of Baozhong warms people's hearts

Coming every week to chat with the elders at the Evergreen Canteen may seem simple, but in reality it is not simple at all. Why is that?

Because running a canteen, as mentioned before, requires a great deal of manpower, material resources, and an abundance of enthusiasm; throughout this process, you can see the township chief and office staff busily shuttling back and forth, asking after the elders' well-being. For many of the elders taking part, this scene feels like the joy and happiness of everyone eating together in the old days.

During this process, we saw that the elders are still full of vitality. After ten o'clock, the elderly took their seats one after another, and the Nomi children also seized the free moments to quickly greet and chat with the elders; today, perhaps because they often see us, they all responded warmly.

For example: there is an elderly couple who arrive at the canteen very early every time. The grandmother never fails to put on makeup and dress up properly for the occasion. Through chatting, we learned that the grandfather and grandmother are already 92 years old. When they were young, they received a Japanese education, and they can still understand Japanese today, and the songs they sing are all Japanese songs. The grandfather studied up to junior high school (9 years) and then went to work at a sugar company. At that time, the pay was about 5-6 yuan. The grandfather stayed at the sugar company from a young age until he retired at sixty.

The grandmother said that in the past, girls did not have many opportunities for education. When she was young, after marrying into the grandfather's family, she began helping with farming. She had to get up at 5:30 every morning. Besides farming, she also had to carry water, haul manure, cook, and herd geese. She told me that when she was young, it was truly very hard! She worked until she was fifty before retiring to enjoy her later years.

In addition, through chatting and telling old stories with the elders at the Evergreen Canteen, at the beginning the teacher picked up a stack of photos of residents interacting with the township chief, and everyone talked about how this one was so-and-so!

Looking at themselves in the photos, the elders showed shy smiles and also said they wanted to take the photos home to share.

Whenever they talk about memories from the past, everyone still smiles so much their mouths cannot close. As they come to the canteen more and more often, the elders become more and more willing to share their stories and childhood toys, and in the future we will record more and more stories belonging to Baozhong Township bit by bit.

From the opening of the Evergreen Canteen until now, I have felt deeply moved. At the beginning, although everyone knew each other, they were usually busy with their own affairs and had no chance to sit down and properly eat and chat.

While eating, I walked to the corner and saw a grandfather using his phone to take photos and record things, so I went up and asked him if he was going to share them with family and friends, and pointed out that in these photos there was no sign of him at all!

So I took the grandfather's phone and helped him take a group photo with his tablemates and the office staff. From these simple interactions, we can also see that through the Evergreen Canteen, the office and the residents have gradually narrowed the distance between them.

#Baozhong Township Office #Baozhong Township #Yunlin County