All for food, food for all
FEATURE by Kathleen Tan
Yu Yuebo gets into queue to collect her dinner from her hall’s canteen. The Year Two Science student who stays in Raffles Hall gets her turn almost immediately– with only one other person in the line before her, there was not much of a queue anyway. “Many people hardly eat the meals provided here anymore,” she commented.
It seems that the grass is greener beyond the walls of the halls’ canteens when it comes to choice of food. With the opening of so many new food outlets in the University Town this semester, it is not difficult to see why many NUS hall residents prefer eating out now. The wider variety of choices was the top reason why they flock to eateries outside instead of eating dinner provided by their halls, according to an online poll conducted on 20 students from various halls.
“It is such a waste of food and money,” Yu exclaimed with a shake of her head. “They are paying for their catered meals, yet so many of them do not even collect their food,” said Yu about the leftovers. Unlike Yu, many other students do not feel guiltyeven if they literally let their food go down the drain. The kitchen team clears almost all uncollected food at the end of each day.
One of Raffles Hall’s cooks, who prefers to be known as Uncle Vincent, is dismayed yet helpless about the issue. “It is quite sad that we spend hours cooking for them and yet some of them don’t even eat here,” he said. “But I don’t think we can do much about their food-wasting.”
This wastage of food is not unique to NUS – it is a concern in Singapore too. Many of us can afford to buy ourselves a proper meal and are spoilt for choice with the variety of gastronomical delights available. However, there are many Singaporeans who struggle to get food but their daily plight of going hungry remains unknown to many. The commonly crowded eateries like hawker centres, food courts in shopping malls and neighbourhood coffee shops that Singaporeans come across make it difficult for them to notice that actual issues of local hunger affect their less-privileged counterparts.
To bring these issues to Singaporeans’ attention, five undergraduates come together to advocate change. Headed by Heather Chi, a Geography major who recently graduated from NUS in July 2011, the team initiated an anti-hunger youth collective called “Food for All”. Its earlier work involved conducting preliminary research on food issues like local hunger, food programmes, food security and eating disorders.
What motivated Chi to start this? “I became interested in food issues after recovering from an eating disorder,” Chi recalled. She then became an active participant of a community project giving out food rations to those of lower income. “I was stricken by the extent of hunger and poverty,” hence the then-undergraduate started researching more about food issues relevant to Singapore.
Some may find it hard to stomach that hunger is an actual problem in ‘food paradise like’ Singapore. It is alarming how many people suffer helplessly because they simply cannot afford to buy food. This was revealed after the team conducted a survey of food rations programmes (FRPs) called the Community Food Survey two years ago. It aims to investigate the extent of hunger and the issues facing existing food programmes locally.
The team looks into FRPs to understand how it is possible to forge a network in the local food system. With the current lack of a proper understanding of ways that “wasted food” can be better allocated to the community, many retailers and more well-off residents in Singapore often let leftover food go to waste. Food for All is considering ways to set up a food bank in Singapore so that food suppliers can deposit their excess stock for redistribution to the community.
Responding on whether Food for All has any value in Singapore’s context, Mr Gui Kai Chong, a Communications and New Media lecturer at NUS, commented that he thinks the initiative “is a very good and meaningful one.” The team from Food for All can “make good use of social media tools to achieve goals that would otherwise be much more cumbersome and costly to achieve.”
Undergrads at NUS can also take their seniors’ lead and start rethinking the ways food is consumed and distributed in school. “Previously, I was skeptical of the possibility that there are actually Singaporeans who have no food on an almost daily basis,” said Seah Chin Liang, a Year Two student from the School of Engineering. He is a resident at Sheares Hall and is used to the fact that there are peers who waste food in their hall. “It is inspiring to see fellow students advocate a stand against local hunger – more of us should follow their lead and start thinking twice about what we can do with all that leftover food that can probably feed many.”
Yu Yuebo gets into queue to collect her dinner from her hall’s canteen. The Year Two Science student who stays in Raffles Hall gets her turn almost immediately– with only one other person in the line before her, there was not much of a queue anyway. “Many people hardly eat the meals provided here anymore,” she commented.
It seems that the grass is greener beyond the walls of the halls’ canteens when it comes to choice of food. With the opening of so many new food outlets in the University Town this semester, it is not difficult to see why many NUS hall residents prefer eating out now. The wider variety of choices was the top reason why they flock to eateries outside instead of eating dinner provided by their halls, according to an online poll conducted on 20 students from various halls.
“It is such a waste of food and money,” Yu exclaimed with a shake of her head. “They are paying for their catered meals, yet so many of them do not even collect their food,” said Yu about the leftovers. Unlike Yu, many other students do not feel guiltyeven if they literally let their food go down the drain. The kitchen team clears almost all uncollected food at the end of each day.
One of Raffles Hall’s cooks, who prefers to be known as Uncle Vincent, is dismayed yet helpless about the issue. “It is quite sad that we spend hours cooking for them and yet some of them don’t even eat here,” he said. “But I don’t think we can do much about their food-wasting.”
This wastage of food is not unique to NUS – it is a concern in Singapore too. Many of us can afford to buy ourselves a proper meal and are spoilt for choice with the variety of gastronomical delights available. However, there are many Singaporeans who struggle to get food but their daily plight of going hungry remains unknown to many. The commonly crowded eateries like hawker centres, food courts in shopping malls and neighbourhood coffee shops that Singaporeans come across make it difficult for them to notice that actual issues of local hunger affect their less-privileged counterparts.
To bring these issues to Singaporeans’ attention, five undergraduates come together to advocate change. Headed by Heather Chi, a Geography major who recently graduated from NUS in July 2011, the team initiated an anti-hunger youth collective called “Food for All”. Its earlier work involved conducting preliminary research on food issues like local hunger, food programmes, food security and eating disorders.
What motivated Chi to start this? “I became interested in food issues after recovering from an eating disorder,” Chi recalled. She then became an active participant of a community project giving out food rations to those of lower income. “I was stricken by the extent of hunger and poverty,” hence the then-undergraduate started researching more about food issues relevant to Singapore.
Some may find it hard to stomach that hunger is an actual problem in ‘food paradise like’ Singapore. It is alarming how many people suffer helplessly because they simply cannot afford to buy food. This was revealed after the team conducted a survey of food rations programmes (FRPs) called the Community Food Survey two years ago. It aims to investigate the extent of hunger and the issues facing existing food programmes locally.
The team looks into FRPs to understand how it is possible to forge a network in the local food system. With the current lack of a proper understanding of ways that “wasted food” can be better allocated to the community, many retailers and more well-off residents in Singapore often let leftover food go to waste. Food for All is considering ways to set up a food bank in Singapore so that food suppliers can deposit their excess stock for redistribution to the community.
Responding on whether Food for All has any value in Singapore’s context, Mr Gui Kai Chong, a Communications and New Media lecturer at NUS, commented that he thinks the initiative “is a very good and meaningful one.” The team from Food for All can “make good use of social media tools to achieve goals that would otherwise be much more cumbersome and costly to achieve.”
Undergrads at NUS can also take their seniors’ lead and start rethinking the ways food is consumed and distributed in school. “Previously, I was skeptical of the possibility that there are actually Singaporeans who have no food on an almost daily basis,” said Seah Chin Liang, a Year Two student from the School of Engineering. He is a resident at Sheares Hall and is used to the fact that there are peers who waste food in their hall. “It is inspiring to see fellow students advocate a stand against local hunger – more of us should follow their lead and start thinking twice about what we can do with all that leftover food that can probably feed many.”