SINGAPORE: The central kitchen meal model will be explored only with schools facing difficulties securing sufficient stallholders, Minister of State for Education Jasmin Lau said on Tuesday (Feb 3).
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has no intention of scaling this model to all schools and does not have a target in mind, she said in parliament in her response to parliamentary questions about the model.
From last month, the central kitchen model was rolled out to 13 schools to address a growing shortage of canteen operators while keeping food meals affordable.
Ms Lau said the government did not introduce the scheme to replace the traditional canteen model.
“We wanted to explore alternative models to help schools that were struggling to attract stallholders and had severe shortages of functioning stalls,” she said.
“We want to avoid putting students in these schools that were at risk of not having good access to affordable, nutritious and balanced meals.”
A pilot for the scheme began with Yusof Ishak Secondary School, which relocated from Bukit Batok to Punggol and did not have existing stallholders at its new site, she added.
After seeing “positive results”, MOE decided to try out a range of central kitchen meal models in the 13 other schools that had found it challenging to secure enough stallholders, said Ms Lau.
Some schools are using hybrid models where operators both deliver pre-ordered meals and prepare fresh food onsite, she added.
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The Ministry of Education (MOE) has no intention of scaling this model to all schools and does not have a target in mind, she said in parliament in her response to parliamentary questions about the model.
From last month, the central kitchen model was rolled out to 13 schools to address a growing shortage of canteen operators while keeping food meals affordable.
Ms Lau said the government did not introduce the scheme to replace the traditional canteen model.
“We wanted to explore alternative models to help schools that were struggling to attract stallholders and had severe shortages of functioning stalls,” she said.
“We want to avoid putting students in these schools that were at risk of not having good access to affordable, nutritious and balanced meals.”
A pilot for the scheme began with Yusof Ishak Secondary School, which relocated from Bukit Batok to Punggol and did not have existing stallholders at its new site, she added.
After seeing “positive results”, MOE decided to try out a range of central kitchen meal models in the 13 other schools that had found it challenging to secure enough stallholders, said Ms Lau.
Some schools are using hybrid models where operators both deliver pre-ordered meals and prepare fresh food onsite, she added.
Continue reading...