Singapore—Sometimes the internet can be a wonderful thing.
Check out this Help Our Hawkers! Google map of 200 hawkers who will serve you a delicious meal and who could, at the same time, really benefit from your help.
And the best part is that you now have access to the hawkers that are nearest to you.
A local Redditor was concerned about the welfare of “many digitally challenged hawkers”, especially those who are elderly and illiterate.
u/waffleboy92 wrote that they are “unable to leverage on food delivery (and) are suffering greatly now and are on the brink of closing down.
“If they’re unable to tide over this period they will be taking years of rich hawker heritage with them.”
He added, “The most straightforward way is to support them directly by purchasing from them…”
But not knowing where they were, he wished there was “something which allows me to know of these stalls at a glance…
“why doesn’t it exist?” he asked.
He then went on to create a map that would be both convenient and accessible, providing this information, so that people would easily find the hawkers.
When the map was launched, he had 10 hawker stalls on his map. Each entry gave the address, operating hours and specialities of each stall, and some entries had the stall’s backstory as well.
However, “kind people stepped up to help,” wrote u/waffleboy92, giving particular thanks to u/yellowbean9 and OldieGoodieHawker.
Now there are 200 stalls on the map. Moreover, the newer data points come with the backstories as well, as we can see from the entry of Roasted Delights, found at Hougang Ave 1 below.
The Redditor added that he hoped the updated map would help everyone who wished to support Singapore’s digitally disadvantaged hawkers, “but just don’t know who and where they are near your current location!”
And anyone wishing to add new stalls may do so as well through this Google Form.
/TISG
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