Baey Yam Keng posts open call for home-based business to cater weekly volunteers' dinner on S$100 budget

Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Baey Yam Keng posted an open call for home-based businesses to cater dinner for volunteers before his weekly Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS) at Tampines GRC.

Writing on Facebook on Dec. 29, Baey said that the menu for about 20 people needs to be halal, and include snacks, staples, or dessert, or all of these.

His MPS are held at 646B Tampines Street 62 every Monday, except public holidays and the fifth Monday of the month.

Baey will be offering a sum from his own pocket, he told Mothership, of S$100 per session.

As of 3 pm on Dec. 30, less than a full day after his post, he has already received interest from about 10 parties.

Showing support

In response to Mothership's queries, Baey shared that for the past six months, he has been personally paying someone to provide dinner for his volunteers to show his appreciation.

These volunteers typically rush over to MPS right after work without dinner.

Thus far, the dinners have been prepared by a cook at the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) Sparkletots pre-school, where the PAP Tampines Boulevard branch rents the space to hold its MPS.

However, Baey learnt over the weekend before Dec. 29 that this cook would no longer be able to cook dinner as she has to take care of her grandchildren.

Now, he is looking to see if any home-based businesses might be interested in taking over the work.

He doubted that commercial caterers would want to do it, given the small order, he said.

At a recent grassroots event, home-based businesses in his precinct participated in a Christmas market, but those selling food could not do so without a licence.

It got him thinking that he had an opportunity to engage home-based food businesses to cater the volunteers' dinners.

As there are a lot of home-based businesses in Tampines GRC, he added, it was also an opportunity to try something different and support such businesses at the same time.

Budget

Previously, Baey had been paying the pre-school cook S$50 per session, which she would use to prepare simple meals, including bee hoon and chicken wings, for instance.

He has doubled the budget to S$100 now to "be more reasonable", he explained.

"It's really up to the businesses to consider this and see whether it is worth their while for them to do this," he added. "So far, I think there's good interest."

As about 10 parties have expressed interest, Baey plans to rotate between the caterers rather than hiring just one permanently.

This way, he hopes to also provide a greater variety in food options and flavours to his volunteers.

Some of the businesses offered to customise their existing menu for him, while one even said they wanted to sponsor the meals, but Baey turned them down.

"It's a good way for us to know our community, our residents, and what they do, and maybe some interesting snacks or cuisine that we don't really find in mainstream kinds of stores," Baey said.

Starts next week

Most of the businesses that contacted him operate in Tampines Boulevard, where Baey's volunteers would also go to collect the food before dinner each week.

This new initiative will start from the next MPS on Jan. 5.

For the future, Baey is also exploring engaging home-based businesses to provide meals for his volunteers on special occasions as well, such as festive and birthday celebrations.

Top images from Baey Yam Keng's Facebook