Singaporean of the Year finalist: He lost $1,000 a day in early years of enterprise hiring disabled

SINGAPORE – For four years, he was losing $1,000 a day to prop up the social enterprise he started in 2010 to employ the disabled and disadvantaged.

Mr Koh Seng Choon, 65, did not pay himself a salary in the first four years of running Dignity Kitchen, a foodcourt that employs people with disabilities as cooks, cashiers and other staff.

He remortgaged his office in Manhattan House for $200,000, and instead of buying a property or a car, as his wife suggested, he put the money into Dignity Kitchen.

To make up for the losses and to support his two teenage sons, he juggled five jobs, including teaching, consultancy work and auditing.

The former management consultant had wanted to give back to society after he saw the plight of poor and disabled people while working in India, China and Britain.

In 1984, Mr Koh was in Britain, where coal miners had started a strike in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that the government deemed unprofitable in the coal industry.

“I saw a society in crisis,” he said.

When he returned to Singapore in 1994, he came to a realisation.

“I didn’t see beggars in Singapore, I didn’t see homeless people, and I didn’t see disabled people in shopping centres.

“So I went to find the answer.”

He made a promise to himself to do good once a month on his days off.

He started with taking lonely seniors living near his flat in Spottiswoode Park on outings, and went on to volunteer with Yellow Ribbon, which helps prisoners rehabilitate and reintegrate with society, before coming up with the idea for Dignity Kitchen in 2006.

Mr Koh, the youngest of six children of a bus conductor father and seamstress mother, said: “My parents always taught me that at age zero to 25, you go and learn; at 25 to 50, you go and earn your money, earn your reputation. Then from 50 onwards, my mum and dad always said, ‘You have to give back.’”

He started Dignity Kitchen when he was 51.

He has poured more than $4 million into the social enterprise over the past 14 years.

Mr Koh is a finalist for the Singaporean of the Year award, organised by The Straits Times.

The award is given to a Singaporean or a group of citizens who made a significant contribution to society. This can be through achievements that put Singapore on the world stage, or by going beyond the call of duty to selflessly improve the lives of others in the community, among other ways.

Over the years, Dignity Kitchen expanded to not just selling food, but also delivering it, renting out its classroom space and stalls for training, hosting events for companies, and providing training for schools and the public.

Mr Koh has also set up a Dignity Kitchen in Hong Kong.

He employs 189 people across Singapore and Hong Kong.

Among the staff here, 80 per cent have disabilities and half are over 50 years old. They are paid $6 an hour.

Today, the Singapore enterprise is financially sustainable, but the Hong Kong foodcourt is making big losses, with the revenue from the Singapore side supporting it.

But Mr Koh is not giving up.

The former engineering and business student sees himself as a social engineer.

“I solve problems... I’m an engineer by training,” he said.

“Every problem has a solution,” he said, recounting how he had helped someone with cerebral palsy years ago.

To hire the man, Mr Koh needed him to be able to hold a spoon, but no matter how hard the man tried to grip it, the spoon slipped right through his fingers. So Mr Koh had to turn him away.

“I’m not trying to change the world. I’m just trying to help one person at a time,” he said.

Then one day, inspiration struck – Mr Koh bent the spoon to help the man hold it. He hired the man, who went on to work as a cashier in a restaurant.

Since then, the social entrepreneur has found ways to work around his employees’ disabilities, from training blind people to count money by measuring the notes against their palms to bringing in one-handed electric claypot machines for stroke survivors to operate.

One of the workers at Dignity Kitchen is 57-year-old Victoria Lim, who was burnt out and had become depressed in her last job as a teacher, which she left in 2015.

She was advised by her doctor to take up a less stressful job, and psychiatric service provider Anglican Care Centre (Hougang) introduced her to Dignity Kitchen.

She started working there as a cashier, slowly adjusting to the job over a month, before taking on administrative and accounting work for the enterprise as well.

Ms Lim has been working at the foodcourt for about five years now.

“I don’t need to bring work home, so it’s less stressful for me,” she said, adding that the job taught her to multitask.

“It’s a family environment,” she added. “I’m very grateful to (Mr Koh) for all his help.”

She recounted how, when she recently moved into her new two-room flat, Mr Koh and her colleagues helped her fill it with cupboards, a television, computer, sofa, fridge, washing machine and an electric hob.

On what keeps him going, Mr Koh said: “The Cantonese have a very nice saying which means ‘might as well wash the hair as it is already wet’.

“I might as well carry on. When I look at all the people working here, I can’t let go.

“I will always try my best to find a solution to keep this going.”