How one central kitchen in Tuas feeds 3,000 Singapore school kids a day

SINGAPORE - Before dawn, a central kitchen in Tuas hums to life, preparing between 1,000 and 1,400 bento meals for four schools.

Cooking begins at 4.45am and wraps up by 5.30am, after which the meals are packed into insulated boxes, loaded onto four lorries and sent off by about 6.45am.

Kept warm in the stalls, the food is ready when the first Primary 1 and 2 pupils at Northoaks Primary School in Sembawang stream in for recess at 9am.

One of the meals, mixed grain rice with chicken and vegetables, drew mixed reviews. Primary 2 pupil Priscilla Titus felt the chicken was a tad oily, while Primary 4 pupil Dylan Laffan, who thought it was juicy, devoured it.

While Priscilla finished her vegetables, which she said were “soft and tasty”, Dylan did not touch them, preferring to eat salads.

“I prefer this system because there’s no queue,” Dylan told The Straits Times at Northoaks Primary on Jan 12.

The food is catered by Wilmar Distribution, which gave media access to its central kitchen for the first time on Jan 14 for a glimpse into how it prepares food for more than 3,000 schoolchildren across four schools.

Wilmar is

one of three vendors

catering to 13 primary and secondary schools since Jan 2. Aside from Northoaks Primary, it also serves Casuarina Primary School, Chongzheng Primary School and Outram Secondary School’s new Anchorvale Crescent campus.

These are among a number of schools in Singapore that have

switched to a central kitchen model

amid a shortage of school canteen stall operators.

After receiving orders from students two days in advance, Wilmar orders the ingredients from suppliers, receives them that evening, and processes them the next day. The food is cut, marinated and stored in a chiller, ready for cooking early the following day.

“Time is of the essence to keep the food fresh,” said Wilmar’s central kitchen director Ho Shau Foong, adding that the company prioritises packing the food quickly once it is cooked to prevent contamination.

About 15 Wilmar employees cook and pack the meals, with another seven staff members distributing the food at each school.

Students collect their meals by tapping their SimplyGo school smart cards on a machine.

Queues moved briskly at Northoaks Primary on Jan 12, with a longer queue forming only at the drinks stall. The school has three staggered recess times for the different levels.

On top of the pre-ordered meals, which range from $2 to $3.50, Wilmar also runs a live station stall in the four schools it caters to. On the menu that day were laksa, seafood fried rice and nasi goreng, each priced at $2 or $2.50, depending on portion size.

Primary 5 pupil Ooi Zi Cheng, 10, said he prefers the live station over pre-ordered food. “It depends on how I feel, what I want to eat that day,” he said, adding that he likes the $2.50 seafood fried rice from the live station stall.

Each day offers five bento options and three live station options, with the menu changing every week. Popular pre-orders among students include the mixed grain rice with chicken and pasta, while Vitagen is the drink of choice, said Mr Ho.

While parents tend to order for the lower-primary children, older students prefer the live station stalls, he added.

He hopes more students will switch to pre-ordered bentos, which offer more options, shorter queues and lower costs compared with the live station stall.

Mr Ho said there was feedback that some of the food did not look as appealing to the children, and Wilmar is working on adding colourful vegetables such as corn and carrots.

He said Wilmar also learnt that cooking the mixed grain rice or pasta for longer to soften it made it more palatable for the children.

Aside from schools, Wilmar serves migrant worker dormitories, cafeterias, food manufacturers, other caterers, and retailers such as 7-Eleven. It will adjust its menu and recipes based on feedback and statistics on the ordering patterns and food waste.

Mr Melvin Cher, principal of Northoaks Primary, said the school has sorted out some teething issues in the first week of the new system, such as onboarding parents. To manage higher demand for the live station, it has also opened up two payment queues.

Mr Cher said the school’s priority is for pupils to eat within about 15 minutes, so they have the other half of recess for play and social learning. Shorter queues help in this aspect, he said.

Wilmar has been responsive to feedback, he added, such as making the dishes less spicy and including more vegetables.

The children have surprised him as well, by managing to eat whole fruits served along with their bentos.

Mr Cher added that the hybrid model allows parents to pre-order on some days and to let their children learn to make food choices and make payment on their own on other days.

“This is a model that works for us as a school,” he said.