Before the project's launch, needy students had to either walk back home for about three hours to have lunch or just skip the midday meal and wait to eat at night after finishing a whole day's classes on empty bellies.

In April 2011, Deng Fei, the project's major initiator, called on the Children Foundation to start the free lunch program, with the help of 500 like-minded journalists, lawyers and volunteers. The initiative commits to provide free lunches for poor children to help them avoid hunger and grow up healthy.

Nowadays, a clean canteen is equipped with rice steaming machines, which have replaced the traditional large cooking pots. In addition, Shaba Primary School now has a full-time professional chef to prepare nutritious food. The free lunches have become more refined and scientific with meat, soup, eggs and other elements.

Fang Kunyou, 51, principal of the school, said through tears of emotion: "Over the years, I've been very pleased to see our children enjoy eating in the canteen and have good health to receive a good education."

Fang said the school has offered free lunches for more than 1,500 children over its 10-year life. Some of them have left for college; others currently attend local high schools.

Altogether, more than 240,000 children receive free lunch on any given day at 1,076 schools nationwide.

Wang Jin contributed to this story.