yin hao (left) and his best friend mao lingfeng are preparing a coffee delivery.
yin hao is making a latte.
at about 1:30pm on friday, yang ankun rushed into the menggongfang coffee shop. he had just returned from taking free coffee to local front-line workers.
“welcome,” said the 22-year-old with autism when he saw the shanghai daily reporter in the shop.
“please come here so i can take your temperature,” he said. “it’s 36 degrees celsius. you are fine. could you tell me what your name is, please?”
yang is one of the eight learning disabled employees at the coffee shop. all of them are graduates from pudong special school, which is just a couple of minutes walk away.
menggongfang is a special coffee shop in the same sense as the school is a special one. having been open for about nine months, the shop, unexpectedly, didn’t suffer much during the recent troubles, and the epidemic gave it a chance to repay the community.
“it is the kindness of society that supports our coffee shop, and it’s time for us to deliver kindness and show care to the society,” said manager yu chenghong. “so, we decided to send free coffee to front-line workers.”
on february 22, the shop reopened and yang, yin hao and mao lingfeng returned to work. the others were unable to come for health or family reasons.
“yang is the receptionist because he has great numerical sense. yin and mao are responsible for cleaning the shop and packaging the coffee. one of them always does a delivery run each day,” yu said.
the shop had planned to make only 1,000 cups of coffee and send them to grassroots officials at the local zhoujiadu subdistrict. as the news spread, many followed suit.
to date, shanghai experimental school and several companies have donated more than 7,000 cups of coffee to medical workers, customs officials, urban management officials and other front-line workers in pudong.
“on the first day, we just made 200 cups of coffee. but today (friday) we made more than 500 cups. from this week, we will extend our opening hours from five days to seven days a week to deal with the increasing orders," yu said.
“i hope to take free coffee to all front-line workers,” yang said. “when i take their coffee to them, i always express my gratitude. customs officials at airport are so busy, and we should care for them. coffee can make people happy.”
when being asked whether it was stuffy to wear a mask all day, he said it’s not a big deal.
“during the epidemic, we all should wear masks. i even wear gloves during deliveries,” he said.
yang can make coffee, and loves drinking it as well.
“i like latte, with sugar. americano is so bitter. coffee is sweet and it can sweeten up our life,” he said, with a thumbs-up.
yin hao, 20, is a down syndrome patient.
he loves cappuccino because “there is a lot of foam.” his dream is to become a professional barista.
“i want to live an independent life and i hope to take care of myself,” he said.
at the shop, his best friend and “idol” is mao lingfeng, who worked at starbucks for six years. “i think he is handsome. he knows everything,” yin said.
having practiced countless times, he can now “draw” eight shapes, such as a flower or a heart, on top of the latte.
“i love my mother so much, and i want to send her this cup. she loves latte,” he said, adding, “but she’s busy taking care of my little brothers.”
a little bit chubby and shy, yin is a chatterbox.
after making the coffee, he went to play "jasmine flowers", a popular folk songs, on the piano. and he played it well.
“my favorite things are playing piano and making coffee. i can play other songs but i just can’t remember them,” he said.
yu said she wants to find barista among his handicapped employees.
“they are just the same as employees at any other coffee shop. i signed a contract with them, and they receive salaries,” he said.
“it’s a place where these children can really blend into society,” said yang bin, teacher from the special school.
in fact, the idea of setting up the coffee shop came from wang ying, former headmistress of the school.
“they stay at our school for 13 years, and they grow from children into adults. they live happily enough on campus, but what about when they enter society? the truth is cruel. only half of our students ever find a job,” she said.
yu, who owns a nearby restaurant, had no hesitation in investing in the coffee shop.
“i’ve been running a business here for more than 10 years, and i’ve seen so many stories unfold at this school. i was hoping to offer help, and this shop gave me that chance,” she said.
yang ankun is writing a letter to express his gratitude to front-line workers.
yang takes free coffee to neighborhood workers.
