Cooking aromas hitting the nostrils and a cacophony of frying and chopping mixed with random chatter of those preparing the food… these are the ingredients of life in a narrow street right next to Jiangxi Cancer Hospital in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. With dozens of small stoves lining either side, this alleyway is where patients' relatives gather to prepare a bite of home for their loved ones.

People bring their desired ingredients—either bought at a nearby farmers market or delivered from their hometown, and for just 1 yuan ($0.16) they can get access to the "kitchen" stoves, utensils, oil and seasonings. Most of the "chefs" aren't local, but have traveled to the hospital as their loved ones are undergoing cancer treatment there. At the alleyway's entrance stands a white sign with bright red characters reading "Charity Kitchen." Next to it, up on the wall, hangs a small board displaying the galley managers' phone number.

In charge of this open-air kitchen are Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang, a couple in their 60s. They actually live in the alley and used to run a breakfast stall selling fried dough sticks near the hospital. One day in 2003, a middle-aged couple stopped by the stall, asking if they could possibly use its cooking utensils to make a dish for their son who'd just had one leg amputated due to bone cancer. All he wanted, was a taste of mom's cooking; the truest definition of "comfort food." The couple couldn't afford to rent an apartment with a kitchen, so they turned to Wan and offered to pay.

"I told the mother to use anything and everything they needed—for free," Wan told Beijing Review. "Living next to the hospital, we have seen many cancer patients and their families succumb to utter despair. Each family dealing or having dealt with cancer knows all too well the physical and emotional hardships it entails. If there was even the tiniest thing we could do to lend a hand, we wanted to do just that," Wan and his wife told the couple they were welcome to use their stall any time.

The couple in fact did come back the following day, bringing along a few more people with the same request. Wan and his wife then realized just how many patients in the hospital wanted to get a taste of home, but their relatives simply had nowhere to cook. "Some patients in the final stages of cancer had already entered the end-of-life phase, a bite of homemade food could help relieve the pain, both physically and emotionally," Wan said.

Home away from home

Free of charge, Wan and Xiong generously offered everything they had to those seeking their help. They even acquired more stoves and utensils as the number of people kept rising. They would also cook rice and serve it for free. As many "customers" offered to pay, they started to charge 0.5 yuan ($0.08) for each dish cooked. In 2016, they increased this to 1 yuan due to rising consumer prices; it has remained unchanged ever since.

Yet the fee could hardly cover the kitchen's basic expenses. They poured their breakfast stall earnings into the alley undertaking right up to 2020, when running both became too physically challenging for the aging couple. They decided to wholly focus on the 24-hour kitchen. Even at midnight, at a knock on the door, the couple would get up and help with meal prep. "Cancer patients can get very hungry at any given time, especially after surgery," Wan added, "Getting in something warm and fresh might make them feel more comfortable."

"For us, this is more than a place for cooking," one patient's relative surnamed Shen said. "This is a home away from home. We share our stories, encourage each other and shed the tears we hold back inside the hospital. Sometimes, we come here not to cook, but to take a break from the depressing hospital atmosphere."

There are sons and daughters cooking for parents, parents cooking for children, husband/wife cooking for their significant other. It's common to see them wiping away the tears whilst whipping up the food.

The walls of the alleyway are packed with words left by those who once used the stoves. They left thank you messages and some even jotted down their phone numbers, inviting Wan and Xiong for get-togethers whenever they're in town. But the couple have not left their kitchen.

Their kindheartedness has rallied support from various parties. In recent years, the local government funded the galley's renovation, giving it a ceiling and proper ventilation. Local enterprises also regularly donate cooking oil, rice and flour.

In 2021, Wan and Xiong were honored by China Central Television as "People Who Moved China in 2020."

Cooking up a prototype

Xu Kai, a 31-year-old man from Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, learned about the kitchen's story in 2021. A professional photographer, Xu has been involved in many charity programs since college. He specifically traveled from Xi'an to Nanchang, a seven-hour journey by high-speed rail, to pay a visit to the project.

His trip made him decide to run a similar kitchen. Right after his return to Xi'an, together with his business partner, he rented a house with a courtyard near Shaanxi Cancer Hospital.

After three months of renovations, the kitchen, equipped with 16 stoves, opened to the public on May 20, 2021.

"My partner and I invested over 200,000 yuan ($3,142) in this undertaking," Xu told Beijing Review. "That is no small sum for us, but it also pushes us to try harder to keep the kitchen up and running."

In late December last year, when the pandemic situation got very bad in Xi'an, Xu and his team over the course of 26 days offered 33,000 free packaged meals to hospital volunteers and cancer patients.

"Today, the kitchen on average prepares over 70 dishes a day," Xu said. To maintain the alley galley, Xu and his partner needed to invest roughly 8,000 yuan ($1,255) a month in their project.

"We were able to handle that as we've been earning far more than that via other channels and we have received a lot of financial support from many sources since the kitchen first became operational," he said. "We are happy to see more such kitchens sprout across other places all over China. That encourages us to keep going." After all, cooking is caring. 

(Print Edition Title: Comfort Food)

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

Comments to yuanyuan@cicgamericas.com