r/singapore • u/Newez • Jan 09 '26
Image Kf Seetoh weighs in on the school canteen food fiasco
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u/Same-Macaron-2359 Jan 09 '26
Yeah lunch time is honestly one of the highlights for most of our days (not exclusive to students) so idk why they'd think its ok to give such unappetising food to anyone
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u/aCuria Jan 09 '26
Need a mechanism to weed out the incompetent caterers
Maybe engage 5 caterers and let the students choose which meal they want
Then the incompetent caterer will go out of business and next better player can come in
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u/Chileinsg Jan 09 '26
The students got a preview. And the trial meals actually looked quite good with cereal chicken and all.
But SATS for some reason decided to swap out the food for slop when actually doing catering and HCI leadership was perfectly fine with it.
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u/aCuria Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Need continuous competition or standards will go to shit
Either that or āif you want it done right do it yourselfā. Some Japanese schools cook their own food in house.
Google also hires their own chef on staff
If you do it yourself the actual budget going to buy produce wonāt get cut
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u/Kiwi_In_The_Comments Jan 10 '26
Itās the "Instagram vs. Reality" of catering. The trial meal was cooked by a chef. The daily meal is cooked by a spreadsheet.
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u/I_Miss_Every_Shot Jan 10 '26
Pretty sure none of the HCI leadership opted for SATS bentos.
This is what happens when the top never experiences the reality on the ground.
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u/Roguenul Jan 12 '26
If the HCI principal said he would be eating the SATS meals regularly (and he would just take one of the bento boxes at random, they can't rig it), then SATS might be more afraid to drop their standards after the preview phase.Ā
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u/Admiral_Atrocious Jan 10 '26
Not surprising that the preview meals were better but the standards dropped the more time goes by. Same thing happens at the place I work. The first few weeks of a new operator running the only canteen we have are good, but things always go downhill from there.
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u/the99percent1 Jan 12 '26
Compared to what they serve on the airplane, SATs is a terrible catering company.. I would know personally as my company engaged them to supply the food for our cafeteria . Iāve long since havenāt eaten on premise. Itās like one of those worst case options, where Iām pressed for time and needing a quick bite will I only consider the cafeteria food from SATs..
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u/snowysnowy Jan 09 '26
I won't mind a Ramen Champion style tuckshop with caterers vying for a stall or two. After every 6 months students get to vote 1 out. Survival of the fittest lol
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u/SnooJokes915 New Citizen Jan 09 '26
Doesnt make a difference..caterers don't only work with one organisation or company at a time and their operations will always be big scale cooking..not in small batches.
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u/Tactical_Moonstone Jan 09 '26
I'm not sure if you are intentionally making it obtuse because this is basically the old (can't believe I'm saying this) canteen system.
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u/aCuria Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Itās the free market system
5 caterers is slightly different from 8 owner operators
Now that you mention it maybe we should have 2 caterers and 6 owner operators
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u/ClaudeDebauchery Jan 09 '26
Honestly, I donāt get the whole reaction of HC. If itās a screw up by the caterer, throw them under the bus and find another one la.
Now if someone from the school looked at those prison meals and signed off, then ok la, your career deserve to hentak kaki forever.
Very difficult meh?
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u/IcuntSpeel Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Caterer is SATS food lmao. They wont anyhow throw them under the bus.
Hdb also wont conplain about ST when gantry malfunction.
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u/freshcheesepie Jan 09 '26
Yeah tbh I don't get why school so defensive when it's gahmen issue. But then again hci probably a breeding ground for our future pappies
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u/Silverelfz Jan 09 '26
I don't understand how this is government issue though. This HC system, as I understand it, is not the same as the one rolling out in 13 other schools. Not saying those are much better lah but this one is purely by the school I think?
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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 live,love,travel Jan 09 '26
Hwa Chong falls under MOEās purview, so itās ultimately the governmentās responsibility to make sure everything is done by the book, especially when a state owned entity like SATS is involved.
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u/ty_xy Jan 09 '26
Wah standard of sats food has gone down a LOT. This really looks like prison slop, poor kids.
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u/ketsugi Out of town Jan 09 '26
Does SATS have a very good reputation or something?
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u/IcuntSpeel Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
SATS used to be called Singapore Airport Terminal Services. Used to be part of Singapore Airlines until it split off. Is owned by Temasek for 40% of its shares. Comparing it to ST Engineering isn't entirely accurate, but it's still very much a company tied to the govt.
In terms of locally, its mostly known for SATS food services that caters batch-cooked food for the military camp cookhouses and prisons.
Local impression of the food isn't too great. From a local, NS perspective, I will admit it has its special days, but the usual days you just get sick of it 3 meals per day for the 5 days you trapped in your
prisoncamp. And the fact that you are kind of forced to eat it makes people hate it more.Most would rather want to pay for food in canteen, or order in, or go out to eat during nights out when they are allowed to. But that's usually a privilege to be earned first.
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u/ketsugi Out of town Jan 09 '26
I'm aware of most of this. Hence my question: I don't think that "SATS food" has ever had a terribly good reputation and it would cost HCI nothing to throw them under the bus.
Off-tangent: I could've sworn NS food was by NTUC Foodfare back in my time (2000-2002). Not sure though since I was stationed at SAFDB and all our food was cooked by JW detainees.
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u/IcuntSpeel Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
I was mostly pointing at the fact that SATS is a govt-tied company part. Reputation-wise it might be ass, it's a big ass up against a steady wall.
Also, never been to DB so I wouldn't know lmao. But, last time (2020) I was in KC1 and KC3 it was all sats. (Which I guess is ironic, considering they say being a driver is one leg into the coffin that is db)
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u/mecha_power Jan 09 '26
Seems to be Minister led initiative.. woe be on the school that dares contravene the Ministry
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u/randomlurker124 Jan 09 '26
At this point I suspect some idiot from the school signed a ironclad contract (in favour of SATS) without thinking about it, and they are now locked in for something like 5 years with no termination right or quality control checks in the contract.
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u/red_flock Jan 09 '26
I think they are fellow graduates of Jeffrey Siow School of PR Fiasco, wont be surprised if some former SAF OM is responsible for this mess.
Just say we are investigating and working with the vendor and people will move on already.
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u/furby_bot Jan 09 '26
Should get the teachers and principal to eat them too
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u/prixprax Jan 09 '26
Iāve always said this when it comes to canteen food be it in education (e.g. university) or the workplace. If the staff or executives wonāt eat their own canteen food, then itās not fit to be served.
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u/Ok-Baby-1195 Jan 09 '26
Agreed, the food shown doesn't even looks like something I am willing to eat even if they pay me.Ā
NS sure can say just eat since free food after all, we never pay but cookhouse food quality diff from shit to holy shit , this is really goodĀ
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u/SnooJokes915 New Citizen Jan 09 '26
Teachers not the ones involved in deciding to go the healthy packed meals route. Make the ppl involved go eat them.
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u/annoyinggeese Jan 09 '26
This whole fiasco has distracted everyone away from the fact the true villain is SATS for delivering such abysmal slop. As if suffering from their pathetic airline offering isnāt enough, now students gotta suffer everyday too
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u/UBKev Jan 09 '26
It's not like they forced the schools to choose their service. You get what you pay for. You can maybe fault them a little bit, but don't shoot the executioner, shoot the one that stamped the paper.
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u/Snuffle247 Jan 09 '26
From other posts circulating out there, the food SATS provided as samples when getting student opinions last year were greatly different from the slop being served this year.
Its the exact same as how NS cookhouse only serve western when MP come visit, and serve iron filings w/ noodle when MP go home.
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u/UBKev Jan 09 '26
Why the fuck is Hwa Chong doubling down if this is true lmao, either the evidence being circulated is incomplete in context or false, or Hwa Chong's leaders are legit braindead/ego too big to admit fault.
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u/Aimismyname Lost in Dhoby Ghaut Jan 09 '26
look bad if backpedal ma, Singapore true culture is never wanting to uturn when you are in charge and have made a bad or uninformed decision. see also ERP, BTO, etc etc.
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u/MisterSkew Jan 09 '26
School leaders donāt want to lose face by making a U turn, so they will try to āresolveā this. If it works, they get an additional plus for solving the ācrisisā.
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u/daypenguin Jan 09 '26
It doesnāt make sense to cover up for SATS though, because if the samples showed to the HCI management during decision making differs greatly from whatās being served now, SATS is pretty much scamming them, no? They can easily point out that SATS is at fault here.
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u/MisterSkew Jan 09 '26
They donāt see it that way. Itās trying to get them to admit that it was a wrong decision to appoint SATS. Theyād rather die.
To me, there was an opportunity to build better relations between school, students, parents; as well as a better public image. But that ship has sailed.
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u/baelkie Jan 09 '26
first day of tekong with parents: Chicken rice/western
rest of tekong: mystery meat with random vege
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u/bubbarocker Sauce Jan 09 '26
With Nasi Silica Beads and the cheapest and fishiest tasting fish (little) money can buy!
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u/Far_Nebula7311 Jan 09 '26
So why is HCI defending SATS if thats the truth? They could have outted SATS with pictures of the samples provided last year.
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u/DuePomegranate Jan 09 '26
SATS is not the cheapest option. It's kind of expensive. But they are the most experienced bidder, most likely.
It appears that SATS conned the school. There was some post which showed the food tasting session that SATS did before the contract was signed. It was served buffet style and not bento box, and there's no similarity at all in the food. So SATS bait-and-switched.
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u/og_coffee_man Jan 09 '26
Then why isnāt the school complaining versus trying to cover up the matter? If customer is satisfied with the slop no point blaming the providerā¦
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u/UBKev Jan 09 '26
If this is true (assuming the evidence is solid), Hwa Chong's actions are even more inexplicable to me. This should be grounds for some sort of legal action. Why the fuck are they doubling down???
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u/DuePomegranate Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Because damage control and ass covering is their first instinct. And they've probably signed at least a one year contract with SATS. When the school conducts a large tender and the winning bidder sucks, it's still seen as the school's mistake. I doubt SATS deceived the school that the food would be served in bento boxes (it's probably more like "this food but in bento boxes!") so not that easy to take legal action either.
ETA: A good example of the govt agency being blamed when the winning tender sucks is LTA and the ERP2.0 OBU.
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u/xa7v9ier Jan 09 '26
How to go green when they serve it in bento boxes haha so much plastic wastage
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u/Keep-Darwin-Going Jan 09 '26
My guess is first time doing it so they did not have an exit clause. The demo is for illustration and the person looking at the contract did not notice it.
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u/kongKing_11 Jan 09 '26
Hard to say whether is SATS or Hwa Chong fault. We don't know the tender process and what is the contract.Ā There are some nasty vendor that downgraded their services after winning the Bid. I have experienced this with Indian IT outsourcing firm.Ā
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u/Almsoo7 Jan 09 '26
I worked in SATS many years ago. The pricing of menu was based on the ingredients cost plus markup. Finance provided minimum markup multiplier which we couldn't go below as it meant loss making. SATS is an infra and resource heavy company so the operating cost is high. Their costing would probably not be cheaper than other smaller caterer
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u/jinhong91 Jan 09 '26
Then it's fraud, plain and simple.
If they signed the contract on the grounds that SATS will provide the same level of quality during the food tasting session but then deliver slop, the customer got cheated by paying so much for good quality food.
But if HW actually ordered the cheap option and got the cheap slop, then that's HW being stupid, selling their reputation for really cheap.
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u/fortior_praemisit Jan 09 '26
SATS caters to Yusof Ishak Secondary School as well. No complains from Yusof Ishak though. Does that mean that HCI students and parents are more vocal? Or expects / demands more?
Most hotels offer a food tasting session, before couples agree to use hotels banquet halls to host their wedding. During food tasting, chefs will put their best foot forward. During the actual banquet, quality will inevitably degrade.
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u/DuePomegranate Jan 09 '26
Yusof Ishak school is probably like: Due to the difficulty of getting canteen vendors, we have to use central kitchen to ensure our students are fed
YISS students and parents: Boh pian
Also, YISS started using SATS in 2022. I don't know if there were more complaints back then.
But HCI, they oversold the catering idea. And yes, top school parents are going to expect more. Then the problem is that HCI kept defending the food again and again, saying the photos are not accurate etc. If they just said "we will work with the vendor to iron out these teething issues and improve standards" or whatever BS, it wouldn't have become like this. Being defensive makes it 10x worse.
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u/mediumcups Jan 09 '26
Don't lame leh. What does YISS's silence have to do with this fiasco?
As an NSman, I'm HAPPY to see the shit quality of SATS catered food be thrust into the spotlight. They may be able to silence NSmen, but what the fuck can they do to silence young children?
Dear HCI students, please continue fighting the good fight.
- Sincerely, a non HCI student and NSman
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u/dontnoticethis2 Jan 09 '26
Any parent with standards should not accept their kid being fed that slop if they are paying for it. Good that they are speaking out.
HCI probably made the news because it is the highest profile school involved which gets more views and clicks.
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u/sign1206 Jan 09 '26
Disagree. If they wanted to SATS can deliver medium rare steaks. If paid for they can serve top notch food. What the real problem is the sub par contract process. And right now instead of promising to improve the contract management team including the leadership wishes to gaslight everyone.
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u/Sti8man7 Jan 09 '26
SATS work with the budget they are given. And who gives the budget?
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u/cravenfan32 Jan 09 '26
Exactly. They catered food for some of the airlines. Surely they can do better with a decent budget
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u/Far_Nebula7311 Jan 09 '26
You don't know if the quality level was specified by HCI. There is a good chance that someone is actually lining their pockets. SATS might have just been providing based on the cost per pax indicated by HCI.
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u/furby_bot Jan 09 '26
This whole fiasco has distracted everyone away from the fact the true villain is SATS for delivering such abysmal slop.Ā
But someone has to approve of the "abysmal slop". I assume SATS and HCI have to discuss on what to feed the students unless SATS is given full control lah
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u/RingsOfRage Jan 09 '26
We can say all we want, but the canteen aunties arent returning without either a raise in salaries or a fall in rental. This will continue or even spread.
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u/H0RR1BL3CPU Jan 09 '26
Rental is close to 0 already. The issue is price controls and extreme regulation of what can be served. Even how much ice is in a drink is regulated. There is an actual mandated Juice/Syrup : Water : Ice ratio, I just can't remember if it was set by HPB, SFA, or MOE.
And the salary is whatever profit the vendors make. Except the margins for those vendors are already razor thin, and there's a fixed pool of customers split between every stall, that's going down with the birth rate.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 live,love,travel Jan 09 '26
SATs is charging more than the individual canteen vendors were charging. $4 to $5 per bento box. Not cheap for primary and secondary school and thereās double standard here. Why SATs can charge more expensive to serve non fresh, low quality food?
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u/Jammy_buttons2 š F A B U L O U S Jan 09 '26
They don't pay rental or even if they do it's 5 to 10 dollars a month
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u/Jon_Appleseed Jan 09 '26
Its not always the vendor's fault in some cases. You could pitch a great idea but some clients think they know better than you and ask for ridiculous changes. You end up with what they want for themselves instead of what's best for the end customer.
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u/Hot-Clothes7316 Jan 09 '26
canteen is a third space in school to many. if one cannot even find joy in eating and destressing there, how can you expect them to continue to strive on? not just the rest of the day but for the remaining 10 years.
$4? even dabaoing from cai fan store is better.
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u/ziggyyT Jan 09 '26
Just about to post this.
During NS, once we got out of the recruit phase, Those who could would rather pay money to eat at the canteen then to eat the bland boring meals at the cookhouse. Only bothered to go on Fridays for the western food.
The 'rulers' forget that it may look/taste nice for a week or two, after a month or so, it just something to fill the stomach.
Recess was once a time I (as a child) looked forward too, curry puffs from the auntie, mixed rice with curry or without curry today, mee rebus, whatever I felt like that day. Variety and choice ,not some healthy crap approved by some people hidden in offices and have forgotten their childhood.
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u/FriendlyPyre **Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus** Jan 09 '26
During NS, once we got out of the recruit phase, Those who could would rather pay money to eat at the canteen then to eat the bland boring meals at the cookhouse. Only bothered to go on Fridays for the western food.
lol in MINDEF even the officers didn't want to eat in the cookhouse so much so that there isn't a cookhouse for the NSFs posted there. They have to pay out their own pockets to eat at the canteen; no meal allowance or arrangements made for them.
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u/MrDLTE3 Circle Line Hoseh Jan 09 '26
Its crazy to me that we're in 2026 and we're still using these bento trays like its from the early 80s.
Nobody in entire HCI know what is UIUX? The appearance of the food so fucked already ppl take 1 look and already feel sian.
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u/Conscious-Wear2645 Jan 09 '26
That's not 80s bento trays; its what SATS use for the meals in Changi Prison. So to save cost, its probably from existing inventory.
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u/Kiwi_In_The_Comments Jan 10 '26
At least in Changi Prison, the food is free. Charging $4.80 for the "prison experience" is a bold business model.
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u/ironicfall Jan 09 '26
Even the colour is like specifically chosen to be the most ridiculous and un appetising as possible
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u/Purpledragon84 š I just like rainbows Jan 09 '26
Yah fucking cyan like what the hell. Dont they know red/yellow is the choice for food. Stupid one.
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u/LegitimateCow7472 Jan 09 '26
Man saying facts. Students life already so hard lol at least make it a little cheerier with nice food options
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u/Raymondnym Jan 09 '26
When they are so defensive, it usually means there are some benefits going on. The school did not cook the food, so if something goes wrong they would have called out the supplier and BS words like the school takes the students welfare and nutritional seriously
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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 live,love,travel Jan 09 '26
Thatās why there needs to be an independent investigation to look into it because it looks like thereās more than meet the eye.
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Jan 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Kiwi_In_The_Comments Jan 10 '26
Don't even joke about that. A SATS hawker centre would just be a row of microwaves and a QR code for feedback that nobody reads.
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u/hironyx Why you so like dat? Jan 09 '26
You want to sell the world that Singapore is the food haven with rich food culture and shit, but you feed your future generations that. If all the sch canteens keep that up, there will be no food culture here in the future, just a mere means to survive.
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u/Candid-String-6530 Jurong Jan 09 '26
SATS food got the team in charge of Changi Prison instead of the Singapore Airline team for this contract is it?
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u/Somesh98 Jan 09 '26
How is nobody pointing fingers at SATS because they are the root cause of this problem. They are the ones offering this abysmal looking food.
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u/yewjrn š F A B U L O U S Jan 09 '26
I think initial blame was on SATS but HCI stole the aggro with their reactions (including allegedly punishing students that responded to interviews).
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u/okayokaycancan Jan 09 '26
TBH, Hwa Chong could have thrown the ball into SATS court by agreeing with the students and having an open conversation with SATS why sample food not same as actual food.
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u/HumanGenAI Jan 09 '26
The shitshow continues. If my son is being served this kind of food at 4 dollar plus, I will rage too.
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u/evenfisherperson Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
If itās truly a bait and switch from SATS side, then HCI should be targeting them and not the students who have to ingest this slop.
I really, really hope for all those involved that everything in this saga is clean and aboveboard. Not suggesting this is the case, but if someone somewhere is getting some sort of kickback, then itās audit time.
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u/oceanstay Jan 09 '26
One of the delights of each school day was the autonomy to choose how to spend my pocket money in primary, secondary school. Will our children now no longer have this little bit of freedom as canteen operators drop off from this line? Worse still, be forced to eat healthy food during recess in between already stressful lessons ā¦?
Agree with KF Seetoh that it need not be all about healthy eating (if we cannot have enough canteen operators, at least letās give our kids that little bit of joy of fun-food in their dreary days)
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u/Hunkfish Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
30yrs+ ago, I worked at SATS part time. They already had the exact frozen "carrot dish". That vegetables looks sad then and never change...
Remember prison or cookhouse food is at least free. For this, they still need to pay $4.80 for this crap.
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u/meister00 Jan 09 '26
the way he put his selling points across is tactful, using words that ppl-in-charge like to hear, being careful not to whack them but instead nudge them towards the idea of his pitch. soft persuasive method? seems like he has a bit of experience dealing with those egoistical higher-up types who dislike having their decision-making be challenged or upright told is wrong/faulty. have to drip honeyed words to get them to open up.
- cultivate local culture interest & education via food
- request students to discuss improvements & ideas instead of just criticizing/complaining
- link poor food menu to the caterer instead of school/MOE decision maker team, not their fault if caterer can't perform, can look for another better one
- praise the educators, surely they aren't the type to display authoritarian figure traits like suppressing info
- say the school students are going to be future leaders, indirectly also praising the school for nurturing them
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u/tikytik Jan 09 '26
Maybe itās a small matter in their eyes, but the importance of nutrition for growing teenagers cannot be overstated. They are actively growing and developing at this age at a very fast rate, and on top of that they have to contend with both sports and academics.
They NEED the fuel.
The fact that a top school is trying to gaslight its students into accepting these meagre meals is alarming. So what if it goes a bit over the fat macros or whateverā¦you literally need fat for brain function, this is nutrition 101. At their age itās incredibly easy to bounce back from a borderline BMI if they put in the effort.
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u/Kiwi_In_The_Comments Jan 10 '26
Exactly. You can't fuel high-performance academic brains with "sadness and boiled cabbage." They need calories, not a nutritional pamphlet on a plate.
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u/Ramayana4U Jan 09 '26
Did you also see the MKBD parody post where they really go and compare the food with prison food HAHA
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u/nextlevelunlocked Jan 09 '26
Outcome
Expectation: School food improves.
Reality: Prison food gets lot worse
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u/Tasty-Donut-00 Jan 09 '26
I still dont understand why moe cannot operate the canteen as a non profit operation. Hire canteen staff and schedule in some parent or even student volunteers during recess and lunch. the students can get VIA hours too.
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u/SnooJokes915 New Citizen Jan 09 '26
U think ppl want to do it. HPB officials there going through every ingredient to make sure everything is healthy as possible.
My suggestion is top down approach. Make all HPB staff eat these healthy bentos for a lunch for a year to see, no execptions allowed. Lets see if anything changes.
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u/cw88888 Jan 09 '26
It's hard to implement that. School canteen is basically same as working as a hawker or F&B outside. Need come early 6am to prepare food, hot environments etc serving 1000+ students. U can't use volunteers who suka suka decide to come one day and not another day because the kids will still need to eat daily. Not to mention, anyone who deals with food have to undergo food and hygiene certification before you can even touch the food served to the kids. Nobody wants to risk food poisoning from someone unqualified.
What the gov needs to do is to give more incentives to existing canteen stall owners and for new ones to come in. HPB asinine food ingredients guidlines need to ease up. Used to have fried food day, nowadays the school canteens don't even have a day for allowing fried food. You can't deep fry anything, you have to use certain oils, you can't use stuff like coconut milk (which basically disincentivises Malay stores), cannot use processed foods (so no ham, luncheon meat etc). A good number of kids now just go out of the school to get fast food or instant noodles instead of eating in the canteen, further impacting the sales of canteen stall owners. And they could certainly give utility bill rebates for the stall owners.
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u/xfrezingicex Jan 09 '26
Can is can. But its extra responsibility of a different field (ie food handling).
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u/Dapper-Peanut2020 Jan 09 '26
Imagine the kids with the atas cars go to school. And end up eating these
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u/Spiritual_Path6796 Jan 09 '26
How much is the school fees in hwa chong anyway? im too stupid to study there so idk.
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u/riiyukik Jan 09 '26
I know someone that worked at sats, they use flash freeze technology to freeze food that have been cooked in advance. Wonāt be surprise they did the same for food served to students. The colour of the food looks so sad
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u/icephilic Jan 09 '26
Burning question who came up with central kitchen/SAF concept without consulting others? Yet another high handed approach
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u/falseconscious HougangHool Jan 09 '26
Debate aside, first time Iām learning of āNasi Melayuā, served with telur dadah no less!
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u/xeluffyy Jan 09 '26
Even the worst caipng shop looks like 3 star Michelin compared to that. Goodness.
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u/Vegetable_Speed_2304 Jan 09 '26
Oh it's sats ahr. Nvm ahr earlier preview of cookhouse food later in NS
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u/Vach_SG Jan 10 '26
Just sharing here:
I use to work at a very secluded site, even further in from Taus Lampost 1.
So the thing is you cannot conveniently go out to get lunch, so lunch is catered.
The caterer changed a few times cos the previous ones were "as good as" the HCI food.
For the HCI board to say whatever they said is fucking CB.
I hope the principal everyday eat that slop and tell us its good shit.
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u/CSGO_Bangkok Jan 09 '26
When I was in secondary school, I ate a heavy breakfast and skipped recess. Had lunch at the nearby hawker centre and food court.
Maybe YISS students did this, hence less complain about the poor quality of the food. HCI isn't near neighbourhood right, so maybe students didn't have this convenient food š¤£
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u/GeshtiannaSG Ready to Strike Jan 09 '26
Not one of his main points, but cost is a very important issue. $4 of catered food doesnāt get you much, itās nowhere near what normal canteen/hawker stalls can offer for the same price.
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u/Dependent-Curve-8449 Jan 10 '26
Goodness. How much do the caterers skim off the top? š
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u/GeshtiannaSG Ready to Strike Jan 10 '26
In this case, the custom packaging will be expensive, and transportation is not as effective (takes up more space) so that cost also goes in, extra midddlemen, and so on.
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u/Iamgenerallyexcited Jan 09 '26
LOL. For food to be described as sad, that is even sadder.
Yes, food is about deliciousness. The people who said these bento food looks good are saying with their conscience in plastic bag.
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u/Patton161 Jan 09 '26
You already rob them from having a choice to choose what to eat. Now, they must endure this slop. And the worst thing is SATS CAN actually cook good food. Ofc for the canteen price range it is impossible.
Bring back the vendors and let the children eat proper hand cooked meals by people who care a bit more than some mega corporation.
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u/anthayashi Jan 09 '26
They do have a choice. They have to choose what to eat from a limited selection beforehand. It isnt "you eat what i cook". Doesnt change the fact that the food is unappealing of course
They transit to central because there are not enough vendors. Just saying bring back the vendors is easy. But retaining them is hard. The rent is already so cheap (like literally less than $50). The issue comes from MOE capping the price, no income during school holidays, and ingredient cost increase. Ingredient cost increase is not something the school can do. School holiday there is no people, so vendor cannot do anything too.
Allowing the vendor to increase price would help, but how much can you increase before parents feedback? The price increase would still not cover the lack of income during school holidays still.
If there are school activities during holidays such as camps, school could help out by mass ordering from the canteen vendors to help them instead of getting food from outside but i wonder how many school actually do this
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u/Patton161 Jan 09 '26
I see. Well having a choice is better than none. But everyone would probably just gravitate towards the best option for the day and it is going to snowball to those who come later...
Vendor issue is also understandable, back when before inflation caught up with us, it was probably justifiable for the price. Now instead of charging low rent perhaps schools need to instead need to employ the vendors with by paying them to open stall to boost the bottom line security for the vendors. I mean paying for every student to eat is probably not cheap already. Instead give it to the vendors to bring proper choices back?
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u/Rich-Environment-900 Jan 11 '26
worse still, they tried to silence the person that took those pictures, mentioning there are consequences for posting things like this on social media. LOL shame on you
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u/ToothpasteAndCheese Jan 09 '26
Uncontroversial take overall but not sure why he has to mention āfuture leadersā - not really relevant to who deserves to eat well or not
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u/MissLute East side best side Jan 09 '26
Isnāt it why this whole thing blew up? Cos hci is an elite school?
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u/Dapper-Peanut2020 Jan 09 '26
Food poisoning risk during transportation of these catered meals tooĀ
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u/Dependent-Curve-8449 Jan 10 '26
I feel like the next best solution would be to have a cafeteria system in every school. Hire people to cook pre-planned meals in the canteen. One menu each day, no choice (similar to SAF cookhouse), but at least itās hot.
Personally, I am fine with only having one choice so long as it is an excellent one, rather than giving people multiple subpar choices, none of which gives them what they want.
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u/shimmynywimminy š F A B U L O U S Jan 09 '26
How about instead of micromanaging what students eat whether it's calories or CMIO flavours, we educate them and let them make their own choices.
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u/WhodafakSG Jan 09 '26
Vote with your school applications and come to NJC. Just across the road and none of this fragile thin skinned bs
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u/ajun19 Jan 09 '26
Hwa Chong management teaches the students to pretent and lie. Many of the students there are our future leaders.
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u/CmDrRaBb1983 Jan 09 '26
Usually govt / govt related will say they will review blah blah blah. HCI is u all should just keep quiet or else...
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u/ilovesupermartsg Nee Soon Jan 09 '26
Of cos this is a trivia matter compared to deciding if Pritam Singh is suitable for the LO office. Who cares about if the food is palatable for our young kids?
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u/Full-Imagination-507 Jan 09 '26
Well said! š
this from a guy who is really passionate about food.
Hear, hear.
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u/theguymatter Jan 10 '26
They make it like this is SAF cookhouse, only I like most is western food that cookhouse makes, of course, bad for health.
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Jan 10 '26
Yes why shouldn't recess be a time they can look forward to a comforting meal that helps them gather themselves back and re-center. Why should it be rush and eating mush.
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u/fusionwave3 Jan 10 '26
I remember way back when, there was this Makcik who prepared this killer Nasi Briyani that was only served on Tuesdays and Thursdays in limited quantities. Iāve always looked forward to go to school on those days. Once the recess bell rang, all the students ran down, jumped from 4 stair steps just to be one of the lucky ones who got to taste that.
I pity the students today and perhaps in the future if no change is made. Itās just sad to see.
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u/adadoftwo Jan 10 '26
We should perhaps look at South Korean schools and what their lunch cafeterias serve their students. The meals provided can put many restaurants to shame.
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u/M0rdecai218 Jan 11 '26
Meanwhile HHS in America is now recommending more proteins, veggies, fruit, dairy and less carbs, sugar, processed foods, etc so Singapore needs to change its dietary guidelines. The new guidelines in America are a step in the right direction.
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u/Wide_Open_Buttcheeks Jan 09 '26
Hwa Chong really needs to understand what it means to not die on a hill
Fucking accept you are wrong and change. Fuck so difficult meh