BEHIND THE 12 HOUR SHIFTS, the lives of NTU's canteen vendors

The blaring sound of the alarm breaks your deep sleep at seven in the morning. Fighting the urge to press the snooze button and fall back into dreamland, you reluctantly drag yourself out of bed. Still half asleep, you trudge to the washroom.

Brushing your teeth and getting dressed as fast as you can, there was still insufficient time to enjoy a hot cup of kopi. Quickly stuffing a piece of plain white bread into your mouth, you rush out of the house to catch the public bus.

The journey to the west begins.

After a two and a half hour long journey to Nanyang Technological University (NTU), you are greeted by long lists of orders to complete. This goes on for the whole day until the sun is long gone.

Now, imagine having such a routine every day of the week. That is the lifestyle of many of NTU’s canteen vendors.

A Day In The Life Of Canteen Vendors

These canteen vendors reach their stalls as early as 8.30am to prepare the appropriate amount of ingredients for the day. While waiting for his supplier to deliver the required ingredients, Canteen One’s Mini Wok owner, Mr Alex, starts setting up his stall before business rolls in.

Upon the arrival of the fresh produce, Mr Alex lugs the heavy sacks of ingredients into the kitchen and begins to skilfully slice and dice the carrots, onions and cucumbers. All these preparations are made in advance for the swarm of Cates (an online delivery application) orders at 10am sharp.

Ding! Ding! Ding! The constant notifications of Cates orders echoes throughout Canteen One. It was time for Alex to start preparing the orders. Simultaneously, students living in the nearby halls stream into the canteen for lunch. A snake-like queue starts to form behind the counter, each group of customers standing one metre apart.

Business begins.

Due to COVID-19, there was only one other staff working alongside Mr Alex. Juggling between online and in-person orders, it sounds like complete chaos.

Alex during lunch rush hour

Mr Alex finally finishes preparing his delivery orders and serving his hungry customers after four hours, without rest. The once bustling canteen grows quiet. Feeling exhausted, he plops down onto his stool to rest his sore legs. This was the only breaktime he could sneak in before dinner peak starts again at 4pm. The cycle continues.

After 12 gruelling hours, the canteen vendors begin to clean up their oil-clad kitchen utensils and throw away the little to none leftover ingredients at 8.15pm. They pack up and close their stalls. It was another long journey home before they could fully rest and relax.

The day then repeats.

Working In NTU Versus Outside Of NTU

For many of these canteen vendors, it takes a considerable amount of time to travel to NTU. Despite that, they still decided to work at NTU due to the added benefits that came along with the remote location.

Mr Alex and Mr Chaw Fook Loong, the vendor of Canteen 13’s Mala stall, are both Malaysians who came to Singapore to start their food business. Thus, the cheaper rentals in NTU were a great consideration in opening a stall.

Apart from financial reasons, Mr Ling Pang Juay, a staff member at Canteen 13’s Ben’s Wok, shared that the environment in NTU is “more relaxed and the students are well-mannered.” He looks forward to little interactions with students while working.

Ling Pang Juay

As compared to working in the food industry outside, working in NTU seems to provide a better working environment for vendors and canteen staff, adding to the appeal.

However, even the relaxed working environment was not enough to shield them from the struggles that were to come.

Unexpected struggles

In 2020, the advent of COVID-19 unfortunately resulted in the closure of Singapore’s borders. Before the closing of borders during the pandemic, some of the Malaysian vendors had to travel between Singapore and Malaysia everyday.

The unforeseen closure meant that they had to adapt their lifestyle to this drastic change.

For Mr Chaw and many others, they had to stay in Singapore because of the pandemic. It has been over a year since he last saw his family in person.

“I had to wake up at 6am to travel from Malaysia to Singapore before the pandemic. I can wake up later now, but I miss my family.”

Currently, many Malaysian canteen vendors are stuck in Malaysia. Low manpower is becoming a common challenge for these canteen vendors who have to mend the stall themselves especially during peak hours. Working alone can be very draining.

“I am the only one running the stall now because a lot of people are stuck in Malaysia.” Mr Chaw lamented.

At times, frustration kicks in amidst the exhaustion.

“Usually there are only two people working. One cooks while the other takes orders. It is very difficult and busy especially when we have to prepare delivery orders from Cates, Grabfood and Foodpanda,” Mr Alex shared.

However, workers are not the only thing that canteen stalls are short on. Even during peak hours, the decline in customers is evident to anyone patronising NTU's canteens ever since the pandemic.

With the cost of living being much higher in Singapore, finances inevitably add on to their stress. This is an exceptional struggle for the canteen vendors who have to make ends meet in Singapore while supporting their family back in Malaysia.

“Business is bad. There are fewer customers now because of Covid-19 and I had no income during the circuit breaker last year,” Mr Ling noted.

It is interesting that different canteens in NTU seem to be progressing differently. With some canteens more popular than others, the number of customers vary. This brings about more struggles in the vendors’ work environment. Mr Alex used to work at the more popular Canteen 2’s Mini Wok before he was rotated to Canteen 1’s Mini Wok by management. He stressed on the significant interactions he has with the many customers has on his working experience. The combination of the quieter Canteen 1 and Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in Mr Alex losing interaction while working in an interaction-centric industry.

“Canteen 2 has more business. I prefer working there but I have no choice. The management rotates us around from time to time.” Mr Alex shared.

Motivation As A Canteen Vendor In NTU

While our canteen vendors have braved through many challenges, it is certainly heartwarming to see canteen vendors working hard. Their joy is bright, even during these uncertain times.

Mr Alex noted that he is contented with his current working lifestyle because of the good relationship he has with his friends and boss. This was enough motivation to keep him going through the day

Mr Ling also mentioned, “I feel motivated to keep going when students tell me my food is good!”

For Mr Chaw, whose business is relatively new, he feels motivated to provide his customers with quality Mala dishes. The thought of building up a customer base in NTU spurs him on to constantly improve his business.

More often than not, we buy food from canteens with the sole purpose of satisfying our famished stomachs. We interact with our canteen vendors on a daily basis, but it is rare to get to know them and hear their personal experiences. Even if our conversations do not extend past an obligatory “thank you”, our canteen vendors do not ask for much.

Like Mr Chaw, all that many canteen vendors ask for is our unwavering support.

“I would rather have 1 customer that visits my stall 1000 times than 1000 different customers who visit only once.”