A Good Feed

Soup Restaurant Group subsidiary, Samsui Supplies and Services, leverages on its F&B strengths to run a sustainable food delivery programme that provides half a million meals to beneficiaries annually. Grace Ma finds out how

our years ago, the directors of Samsui Supplies and Services, Ang Kian Peng and Then Khek Koon, visited a voluntary welfare organisation (VWO) that had special needs beneficiaries. When mealtime came, they were taken aback by the standardd of nutrition in the food provided. “It was mostly fried food and few nutritious options,” says Ang. “We saw a need for healthy food for the beneficiaries, and we felt that we could leverage on our core competency in food and beverage to meet this need.” The pair decided to start a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme under Samsui Supplies, a subsidiary of the Soup Restaurant Group, supplying healthy, tasty meals onn a regular basis to VWOS. Ang, who is also the group’s business development head, says, “Many people were sceptical of our efforts at first, thinking that we won’t be able to sustain the food delivery and that it would be a one-off project. But we managed to do so by focusing on our core competencies and network, and engaged the community to participate as well.” Last November, Samsui Supplies received the President’s Award for Volunteerism and Philanthropy under the Corporate – Small and Medium Enterprise category for its ininnovative and sustainablesu food delidelivery services to nursinursing homes and non-proprofit organisations. From 10100 meals a day, Samsui Supplies now provides 500,000 meals annually at heavily subsidised rates for VWOS. Designed by Soup Restaurant chefs and approved by dieticians and nutritionists before being rolled out, these meals usually include meat and vegetable dishes such as the Soup Restaurant’s popular ginger chicken and laksa made with ground ikan bilis (anchovies), instead of dried shrimp to increase calcium intake. The food is prepared daily at its central kitchen in Kampong Ampat or during downtime at the

EAT WELL Samsui Supplies and Services’ chief culinary officer Heman Tan (left) and director Ang Kian Peng rope in their staff such as chef Lee Chee Hua (inset) to prepare nutritious meals at heavily subsidised rates for beneficiaries of voluntary...