KF Seetoh: Many families are still displaced and disadvantaged in our shiny, gilded, rich, world-class city

SINGAPORE: Food guru KF Seetoh shared in a post on Eid al-Fitr (April 10) that he and his team had given out more than 1,000 Iftar meals to families to break their fast over the past month but added that he is neither honoured nor proud about it.

Mr Seetoh, who has been vocal in the past about how expensive Singapore has become, also noted how many families there are in need.

“At best we declare we are blessed” to have been given the opportunity to give back to society through sharing meals, the Makansutra founder wrote, adding, “It’s a humane responsibility. It’s expensive to live in Singapore if you slip between the cracks.”

However, he also wrote that he is “bothered” and “flummoxed” that there are “still many displaced and disadvantaged families in our shiny, gilded, rich, world-class this-and-that city.”

Nevertheless, he thanked his colleagues at Makansutra, Gluttons Bay Muslim hawkers Syifa Satay and Old Satay Club Mee Goreng, and the “many volunteers who pitched in to cook, pack, send, and deliver” the meals they gave away.

“Thank you and bless your kind souls. A peaceful and happy Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all our Muslim friends,” he wrote.

Mr Seetoh often writes about the difficulties of living in expensive Singapore, especially for hawkers and others in the food and beverage industry.

While many Singaporeans have come to expect delicious but inexpensive food offerings, this has become difficult to provide for those in the industry, given higher prices of everything, including food and rental rates, especially in the past few years.

He has also lamented the manpower crunch that has made the hawker trade in Singapore even more difficult.

For example, he expressed outrage last year when stalls at the Geylang Serai Ramadan bazaar were reported to be S$18,000 a month, calling it “the world’s most expensive pasar malam stall offering an unproportionately cheap menu.”

“Justifying our world’s most expensive city reputation I guess. How did we get here?” he added.

More recently, he warned those considering a career in the food and beverage industry.

“If anyone is looking to start an F&B or hawker stall in Sg… be very careful. I urge you to think twice. There’s no support for your cause and passion, no one represents your problem n concerns,” he wrote last month. /TISG

Read also: KF Seetoh: ‘Anti-competition’ acts by hawker management may cause would-be hawkers difficulties ahead