Companion volume B
The Budget Book
Every ledger line for Years 0–3, centre by centre. The endowment, and Follow the Gift over twenty years. The ask of Government, itemised. What happens if funding falls short. From the Plan, in full: the relief cook's day, the Fellowship, the apprenticeship, the landing package and the governance.
Give first · Buy services, not exclusivity · Let the business carry succession
小贩文化 · Warisan Penjaja · உணவுக்கடை மரபு · Hawker Culture
Companion volume B. If you are a funder, start here. It reads on its own and says which other documents to read with it.
This volume at a glance
Read this if you…
- are a funder, a foundation or a company deciding whether to give, and want every line before you do;
- work in Government and want each decision and each Budget cost, itemised;
- want to test whether the endowment lasts, and what happens if the money falls short.
The bottom line
- $19,683,808 over Years 0–3, at three centres. Chinatown Complex and Geylang Serai open in Year 1, Chinatown's start timed after its repairs, which the ledgers assume are done by July 2027; Tekka in Year 2. $14,253,702 of it, 72.4%, reaches hawkers directly. The bill is $4,693,468 higher than in version 1.2, 31.3% more, for four reasons: (1) apprentices are now paid the Progressive Wage for a stall assistant; (2) each Fellow's CPF is now costed; (3) the Fellowship now runs three years at a lower monthly amount, so no master loses his income overnight when the teaching ends; (4) the relief cook's day now stays within the Employment Act's 12 hours, with overtime paid. Since version 1.4, each centre also opens with a two-week count of its stalls' orders (B.1, B.2).
- Every ledger comes in two parts. An operating budget runs the institution; a programme budget reaches hawkers, centre by centre. No centre is costed as an average (B.1–B.5).
- A $40M endowment, invested to last. $15M from Government as its first gift, a $10M pool that matches gifts dollar for dollar until it runs out, and gifts. From Year 4 it can pay for all three centres. On our central assumptions no year falls short; in about one in five simulated futures, some year does (B.6, B.9).
- What we ask of Government is short. Most of it is administrative, none of it needs a new law, and every Budget cost is named, beside a longer list of what we do not ask. The table-cleaning fee is now a $200-a-month subsidy at the pilot centres, and the Apprentice Work Pass is no longer part of the request (B.7).
- If the money falls short, the plan shrinks, not breaks. If the campaign stalls at its first $12M, both Lighthouses keep running and Tekka waits. If it fails, the knowledge stays saved and open (B.8).
To be sure, the years from Year 4 rest on an assumed rate of new Fellowships until the yearly at-risk count comes in. B.8 and B.9 print how far it can move.
How this connects
Where it comes from. Part VII of the Plan, which gives the yearly totals, the split between operating and programme budgets, and the request to Government as a table, with the endowment and the downside in brief. This volume is the money in full, with the costing behind the Plan's cards for the Relief-Hawker Corps (§2.7) and the Master Fellowship (§4.2), the apprenticeship (§3.3) and the landing package (§3.4), and the governance the money answers to (§3.8).
Read with. The Plan, for what each line buys; Follow the Plate (D.7), for what each proposal returns per dollar; Method, Levers and Data (F.3), for every model parameter.
In this volume. B.1 Reading the ledgers · B.2–B.5 Years 0 to 3 · B.6 The endowment · B.7 The ask, itemised · B.8 Downside mode and sunset · B.9 Follow the Gift: who pays for the plan · B.10–B.11 The levers on the gates and the funding · From the Plan, in full: B.12 The relief cook's day, costed · B.13 The Master Fellowship · B.14 Governance, representation and sunset · B.15 The apprenticeship · B.16 The Graduate Landing Package.
Terms used
- Operating budget (A). The institution's own running cost: the team, the office, the evaluator, the Hawker Council and the national platforms.
- Programme budget (B). The money that reaches hawkers, shown centre by centre.
- Heritage-worthy stall. The stand-in measure that sizes each centre: a stall in the MICHELIN Guide or with a Hawker Heritage Award, or documented as running 30 years or more or in its second generation.
- Matching pool. $10M that matches diners' and companies' gifts dollar for dollar until it is used.
- Downside mode. What runs if the campaign stalls at its first close: the two Lighthouses alone.
- Follow the Gift. The funding model: the plan's own money, from the people who give it to what it buys, over twenty years and 5,000 futures.