Dear Editor,
I am concerned about the recent price increase and my child’s canteen food quality. My daughter told me that her favourite porridge has increased from $1.80 to $2. I thought it was reasonable, given that hawker food costs at least $3.50 or $4 these days. That was until I asked her to take some pictures of her food to show me.
I was shocked to see that the porridge had hardly any ingredients in it, except for some hardly-noticeable minced meat. My girl confirmed that the only ingredient was a few bits of minced meat. I expected to see at least some vegetables (peas or carrots?) to make the food more “balanced”. The portion was also small! You can tell from the small bowl placed on top of the plate.
I understand that food prices have gone up globally lately, but at least give our children better quality (and decent quantity) food. For $3.50 or $4 at my nearby coffeeshop, I can get an adult-sized bowl of porridge with a decent amount of minced meat with century eggs.
Perhaps schools or MOE could assist canteen vendors by lowering their rental, in order to encourage them to provide better value meals to students.
I am not grumbling about the 20-cent increase (though it does affect us parents), but how about some control of the canteen food quality and quantity?
Many kids have yet to learn the value or concept of money and do not know whether what is expensive or value for money. I hope our schools can do more to ensure that our canteen vendors provide quality and balanced meals at reasonable prices.
From,
Parent from Bendemeer Pri
news@theindependent.sg