Volunteer in Shanghai's Hongkou district

A good cook like Cui Li not only warms people’s stomachs but also their hearts.

Cui’s Auntie’s Restaurant is located in front of her own residential neighborhood in Shanghai's Hongkou district.

The neighborhood was locked down at the end of March. After some neighbors tested positive in her building, Cui did not go home.

She instead went to Chen Shi, Communist Party of China (CPC) secretary of the CPC general branch of Hongxing neighborhood of North Bund Street and asked to reside and volunteer at the neighborhood committee office.

The committee had a total eight members responsible for five communities of more than 2,800 people.

“Watching them, I can even feel their tiredness,” Cui said. “If the nucleic acid tests start at 8:30 in the morning, the neighborhood committee has to get up at 5 o’clock to prepare.”

“They only slept four hours a day. I had to do something.”

Cui started by helping with the COVID-19 test line.

Her restaurant was closed and so Cui cooked in the neighborhood committee office kitchen.

“The officials in the neighborhood committee could rarely have meals and some soup always makes them feel better,” Cui said.

Chen said that they had not rested for more than a month. Sometimes they didn’t have lunch until 4 pm.

Today that committee has 20-30 volunteers and growing.

Cui often wears protective clothing, climbing up and down the buildings.

“Residents on the fifth floor have chronic diseases, so we should pay more attention to the deliveries of their medicine,” she said.

Cui never goes home.

“At the worst of the epidemic, the officials in the neighborhood committee went upstairs to my home every day,” Cui said. “Now the community needs me and my family supports me. Why should I be afraid?”