SINGAPORE: A young woman who starts work at 1 am to serve dishes that are inexpensive and healthier to patrons of a hawker stall, most of whom are seniors, has been winning “massive respect” from Singaporeans after being featured in a CNA video.
Amid anecdotes from many who’ve noted how expensive food in Singapore, even in hawker stalls, has gotten, all the entrees at Hani Isinin-Racine’s stall are priced at just S$2.50.
Hence, the name of the stall: The S$2.50 Shop, located at Jalan Kukoh, serves Traditional Malay Muslim cuisine. This includes mee soto, mee goreng, and nasi lemak, and nasi sambal goreng.
“Even our biryani is two dollars and fifty cents,” she says in the video.
The enterprise is a family affair, with the “queen of the stall,” mum prepping and cooking, and dad frying the food, and Ms Hani jokingly calls herself the “Deputy Owner” in the same way that there is a Deputy Prime Minister.
Ms Hani is obviously proud of her parents, both of whom are in their 70s. And despite the low prices they charge, they do not compromise on food quality and portion size, and patrons of the stall vouch for this.
She explained they keep prices low to serve meals to needy families and seniors with a smaller purchasing power than others.
They are open from 3:30 am to 2:30 pm, especially for seniors who have trouble sleeping and need to eat before taking their medicines.
Ms Hani says that Jalan Kukoh is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Singapore, where most residents are senior citizens and live in rental flats.
At times, they sell customers food on credit, knowing they may never get paid back. “If you don’t give them credit, where are they going to eat? We try our best to help them,” she said.
Surprisingly, Ms Hani came from the corporate world, which only made her miserable. By 2022, she decided to help her parents with the stall. And when they started the stall, the prices they charged were actually higher.
However, a conversation with a woman who only had S$10 but had five children to feed caused them to decrease their prices to S$2.50 per dish.
While Ms Hani’s parents are still on their feet, they’ve also begun to have health issues, so from seven days a week, they’ve gone down to five days of operations only.
Moreover, even with some suppliers aware of what they do for their neighbours, such as giving them discounts, the family is still struggling financially. Nevertheless, Ms Hani considers her work to be very rewarding.
Commenters on CNA’s video on YouTube and Reddit have commended the young hawker and her family for their generosity to their neighbours. A number of them said they would patronize the stall and sample their food.
One Reddit user even said that Ms Hani is doing more for the needy than the authorities are.
A YouTube commenter said the family has a “heart of gold,” and another said they should be “nominated for Singaporeans of the year!”
“An easy way to help them is … when you patronize the stall, give them $3.00 (or more, if you can) and say ‘keep the change’,” one suggested.
“This is NOT a food stall. It is a Charitable Organization,” wrote another.
By far, the most popular comment was this suggestion:
“Those who are working there, or who will go there after watching this, what would be best is to pay it forward. If your meal costs $2.50, give them $5 to keep the change.
That helps them sustain this stall, and you can still get a $5 lunch which is still not so bad ah.”
If you’d like to learn more about Ms Hani, her parents, and their shop, find them here. /TISG
Read also: S’poreans say report about men eating leftovers at Chinatown hawker centre has ‘no empathy’