Support for Self-employed School Canteen Stallholders to Manage Higher Costs of Ingredients and Utility Charges

Ms Ng Ling Ling asked the Minister for Education in light of the higher costs of food ingredients and utility charges in Singapore (a) what measures will be in place to support self-employed school canteen stallholders to manage these costs to sustain an adequate income for their livelihood, without them increasing the costs charged to students; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider a separate fixed utilities price plan for canteen stallholders through bulk negotiation among schools with SP Group or other electricity retailers to help these self-employed stallholders.

Schools monitor canteen food quality, food portions and prices based on guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Schools help to keep canteen food prices affordable and support school canteen stallholders by charging nominal rental rates for canteen stalls, ranging from $5 to $15 per month. Nevertheless, with inflation, we have to carefully strike a balance to ensure that canteen food meets the nutritional needs of our students, that prices are affordable for students and yet still provide a meaningful income for our school canteen stallholders.

From time to time, MOE provides guidelines to schools on the range of canteen food prices. Together with those guidelines, we also review the school meal subsidies for students from low-income families to ensure that they continue to be able to afford school canteen meals even as prices rise because of inflation.

Schools have been affected by rising utility charges and MOE continues to seek favourable rates from the market, including through demand aggregation. Where we are able to secure favourable rates for our schools, we extend the same rates to the canteen stallholders in their respective schools.