During one of his walkabouts, Mr James Loo, PBM, Chairman of Tanjong Pagar Community Club Management Committee (CCMC), noticed how the livelihood of hawkers at Tanjong Pagar Plaza Food Centre was further strained during the Heightened Alert phase last year.
To support these hawkers, Mr Loo spearheaded an initiative to rally corporate partners into organising group buys. The purchased food items were then delivered to frontliners working in the hospitals and vaccination centres, as well as beneficiaries in the Tanjong Pagar – Tiong Bahru division.
“Back in May last year, the grassroots adviser and I trialled and fine-tuned the process by first getting the team to buy and deliver food for frontliners at the Tanjong Pagar Vaccination Centre, Tanjong Pagar Community Club and Singapore General Hospital. Only then do I have a system and proper governance to approach corporates. Otherwise, given that it is a new project, corporates may not be able to understand how it works and how they can come in,” Mr Loo shared.
This meaningful initiative garnered the support of DBS Bank and Singapore Pools. Besides buying from the hawkers, these corporates also work closely with volunteers from the Tanjong Pagar CCMC to pack and deliver the meals.
SPD is privileged to be one of the organisations that benefitted from this initiative.
Ms Tan Lee Huan, Operations Executive at SPD Sheltered Workshop, said: “Our clients are delighted to have the opportunity to taste the delicious hawker fare from Tanjong Pagar Plaza Food Centre. This is only made possible by the initiative from Tanjong Pagar CCMC and their corporate partners who organised this food delivery to our clients on 17 & 24 February.”
Mr Chua Kim Huat, who runs Jin Fa Chicken Rice, is appreciative of the support provided to hawkers like him through this initiative.
“I am very grateful towards the group buy which helps us to cover the overheads,” he shared.