NTU students petition to save canteen stalls after vendors allegedly hit with rent hike & S$20,000 renovation fee

Students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have started an online petition calling for the school to protect the vendors at CresPion Canteen whose monthly fixed costs have allegedly doubled.

The CresPion Canteen serves both the Crescent and Pioneer student residential halls.

The petition, titled "Save Our CresPion Canteen", says that NTU's Office of Commercial and Auxiliary Services (OCAS) is changing the operators of CresPion Canteen.

In addition to an increase in rent, the new operator Food Paradise has supposedly imposed a fee of S$20,000 on each vendor to pay for the canteen renovation scheduled to start on Dec. 11, according to the petition.

As a result of the higher costs, the vendors are considering leaving.

Describing the vendors as "the heartbeat of CresPion" who provide affordable meals, the students behind the petition expressed concern for the vendors' livelihoods and the access to affordable meals on campus.

Mothership has reached out to Food Paradise for comment.

The cost increases

After interviewing various stakeholders, the students behind the petition shared a breakdown of the impending changes in monthly costs.

According to them, the CresPion Canteen vendors pay about S$3,600 a month now to the current operator.

This includes their roughly S$2,100 rent, and cleaning and management fees.

Under Food Paradise, base rent would go up to S$4,500, while cleaning and management fees would also increase.

In total, the vendors would need to pay about S$7,100 a month, as well as five per cent of their monthly sales as the Gross Turnover (GTO) sum.

On Nov. 2, NTU Financial Aid Friends posted on Instagram to share the petition, calling the cost increases on the vendors "exorbitant".

Concerns

An NTU student who has stayed in Crescent Hall for two years told Mothership she feels "a lot of injustice and sadness" for the vendors, whom she called kind and hardworking.

"I don't understand why the canteen needs a renovation, why the vendors are subjected to such a huge cost for the renovation," she said.

She highlighted the mixed rice stall where she could get a S$3.30 meal, and expressed gratitude to the vendors for maintaining affordable prices for the students.

Demands

According to the petition, CresPion Canteen offers "some of the most affordable meal options" in NTU, and students worry that the stalls would be replaced by more expensive ones due to the cost hike.

The main demands of the petition are thus for NTU's OCAS to protect the vendors' livelihoods and keep food and rental costs low.

"NTU should ensure that food on campus stays affordable," it said. "The welfare of students and workers on campus should come before profit."

The petition, which was created on Oct. 18, has received more than 1,800 signatures as of the time of writing.

NTU's statement

Responding to queries from Mothership, an NTU spokesperson said that the food court will undergo refurbishment works starting from December 2026.

It said this was due to dining facilities and food preparation areas showing signs of "age and wear".

"The refurbishment is part of our campus maintenance programme and ongoing efforts to enrich the campus experience, ensuring the facility remains safe, vibrant, comfortable, and well-equipped while providing a wide diversity of food choices for the campus community."

The spokesperson said Food Paradise was appointed as the new master operator to manage the food court following a proposal and evaluation process involving a committee of staff and student representatives from the Hall Council.

"Consistent with the practice in the F&B industry, NTU food court operators run their locations as independent businesses. Whilst NTU maintains active oversight of dining standards and the availability of affordable food options across campus, the master operator decides how best to manage the food court and sets commercial agreements directly and independently with individual stall owners."

The spokesperson said that the university prioritises keeping dining options diverse, nutritious and affordable for the students, pointing to initiatives such as benchmarking of food prices and mandatory provision of value meal options.

"Food court operators are also required to seek the University’s approval prior to price adjustments."