Saving Singapore's Hawker Heritage

The crisis in five numbers – and a blank

Median hawker age (MSE, Nov 2024)

6060: Median hawker age (MSE, Nov 2024), on the figures page

Patrons who would not want to be a hawker (NEA survey, 2019)

87.3%87.3%: Patrons who would not want to be a hawker (NEA survey, 2019), on the figures page

Typical hawker income, the lowest 20% (MSE, Nov 2024)

Lowest 20%Lowest 20%: Typical hawker income, the lowest 20% (MSE, Nov 2024), on the figures page

Typical hawker margin per dish (NEA Workgroup, 2020)

20–30¢20–30¢: Typical hawker margin per dish (NEA Workgroup, 2020), on the figures page

Of 566 who finished HDP's classroom training, 16 run a stall in a hawker centre (MSE, Jul 2024)

2.8%2.8%: Of 566 who finished HDP's classroom training, 16 run a stall in a hawker centre (MSE, Jul 2024), on the figures page

Govt keeps no register of at-risk hawker trades (MCCY, 7 Oct 2026)

No listNo list: Govt keeps no register of at-risk hawker trades (MCCY, 7 Oct 2026), on the figures page

From §1.1.

The plan on one page

1. 1
   Make the trade worth enteringPublished rent bands, with stalls let by ballot, as Build-To-Order (BTO) flats are. Price freedom for the cook; Makan Vouchers, through the existing system of CDC vouchers (Government vouchers for every household), for every household that needs help with the bill. A Relief-Hawker Corps to break the six-day grind, and Buying Circles, run by the hawkers at each centre, to bargain together for ingredients, power and delivery. Insurance for the oldest stallholders comes first, before anything is asked in return.Read Part II →
2. 2
   Move the knowledge before it is lostA Regulars' List, open at every government hawker centre, records the dishes each centre's regulars want kept; a separate yearly count, which never names a stall, tells Parliament how many are at risk. A Culinary Seed Bank documents endangered dishes well enough for a trained cook to cook from, pays masters to teach as Fellows at their own stalls, proves each record on the master's day off, and sets every graduate up in a real stall with financed equipment and an income top-up for 24 months – because Singapore has already shown it can train hawkers and lose them.Read Part III →
3. 3
   Let the business pay for successionA busy stall has real goodwill (what a stall's name, recipes and regulars are worth when it changes hands). The Succession Mortgage lets the incoming cook pay the retiring one out of future takings, through an escrow (a neutral account that collects the payments and pays them out) with a guarantee behind it; the Family Name Royalty gives the master's children a ten-year stake in the name above the stall. Gifts are kept for the dishes the market cannot carry.Read Part IV →

• 4-year programme$19.68M
• endowment target$40M
• Master Fellows44
• apprenticeships88
• funded landings26
• pilot centres3
• cameras0

From The Plan on One Page. The money is set out in Part VII.

Follow the plate

Of each dollar a diner pays at a cooked-food stall, about 45¢ buys ingredients, 3¢ to 26¢ goes to the landlord, and 7¢ to 21¢ reaches the hawker's family.

1. Subsidised NEA stall 20.8¢ to the hawker household
2. NEA centre, tendered 17.9¢ to the hawker household
3. Operator-run centre 9.0¢ to the hawker household
4. HDB coffeeshop 11.8¢ to the hawker household
5. Private coffeeshop 7.4¢ to the hawker household
6. Mall food court 11.2¢ to the hawker household

1. Ingredients
2. Landlord: rent and fees
3. Centre services
4. Assistants' wages
5. Utilities
6. Delivery apps and payments
7. Other running costs
8. Hawker household

Explore the model → Who pays for the plan? Follow the Gift →

From Follow the Plate, D.1, with data from the model's results.json.

What each of us gets

• What they getWhat it costs them

• The makan-goer

  What they get. The food survives; quality is guarded by masters, not cameras; targeted Makan Vouchers absorb price movement for households that need help.

  What it costs them. Prices at certified stalls move with quality – cushioned, for those who need it, by the voucher.

• The hawker

  What they get. Insurance – first. Then fair banded rent, actual days off and an hour a day, cheaper ingredients, power and delivery bargained for together in Buying Circles of their own, a paid Fellowship, and a funded retirement paid by the business they built.

  What it costs them. Nothing is compulsory. Participation is opt-in at every layer.

• The hawker's children

  What they get. A 90-day right of first refusal on the stall, a 2.5% royalty on the family name for ten years, and the complete private archive of their parent's craft.

  What it costs them. Nothing.

• The young cook

  What they get. A paid apprenticeship, then a real stall by ballot, financed equipment, a top-up to their income for 24 months, and a mentor two stalls down.

  What it costs them. Eighteen months of hard training and a mortgage paid to the master who earned it.

• Government

  What they get. A UNESCO stewardship story with numbers behind it; cost-of-living help through vouchers it already runs; seniors' dignity, visibly delivered; and a programme it starts with a first gift but need not run, which must pass clear tests to grow and winds itself up if it fails, with a Government director holding the board's tie-breaking vote, every use of it published.

  What it costs them. The ask, below ↓

From §1.4.

The ask

Hawkers and diners should shape this plan, and be able to stop it. Join in →