This woman throws food parties for migrant workers and Singaporeans
And she just got a $20,000 value grant to keep doing it.
9 years ago
The Culture Kitchen events, which invite Singaporeans and sections of Singapore's various migrant worker communities to break bread together, are back after a long hiatus. (The last Culture Kitchen, involving a Burmese feast and a tour of Peninsula Plaza, was in March 2014.)
The founder, Singaporean tech professional Adrianna Tan, just got a $20,000 grant from budget airline Jetstar to keep the dinners going. Always one to know what to do with an injection of funds, this start-up geek now has a meal planned every three months for the next year, starting with Mabuhay, Singapore, a Filipino themed dinner taking place tonight (Aug 16) at Artistry. The next one will be a Yemeni-themed event on Arab Street in December.
Here, we speak to her about what it takes to execute something like this, and how much of a difference it actually makes.
How do you go about executing a Culture Kitchen event?
My team and I try to come up with a unique experience distinct to each group. We reach out to community leaders, solicit their suggestions and involve them in the process. We reach out to migrant worker NGOs, such as HOME and TWC2. We also go to the places that certain migrant worker groups frequent, and invite them to Culture Kitchen. Lastly, we create a little take-home flyer which always comes with a little story or explainer, as well as a recipe or list of places to try out these cuisines on your own.
What draws you to this issue?
I've been living on the road for the past decade, clearly in a position of some privilege. But I care deeply about what it means to be an outsider in a society that can at times seem so closed, or hateful. And I've been on the receiving end of that in other places. I just don't want Singapore to be that place for others. But sadly we so often are.
What does the grant from Jetstar enable you guys to do?
It enables us to run events without the organizers having to pay for it entirely out of our own pockets. It's a relief, because each event can cost thousands of dollars to run. The biggest component is food cost. Now we will have a bit more time to think about how to make Culture Kitchen sustainable, how to pay for itself eventually. The second component of the Jetstar grant is we have a $10,000 pot of Jetstar flights. We are using those flights to set up a migrant worker flight fund with migrant worker rights groups HOME and TWC2.
So why do you charge $5 for the event?
We charge $5 because we think that free events have huge drop-out rates, and we absolutely never want to get into a position where we generate food waste.
Do you worry the concept might seem tokenistic?
Sure, it's something that we have been grappling with. We're not an NGO, we're just a group of people who are trying to make a small different on an individual level. It doesn't mean we don't have strong opinions about the state of affairs, or that we hope to use our flashy liberal sentimental hokeyness to cover up real problems. We don't. We acknowledge they are there.
What’s the most interesting encounter you’ve had at Culture Kitchen?
When the Bangladeshis who came to our first Culture Kitchen came also to the second one even though we were featuring Myanmar. They ate some of the food and said, "This tastes almost exactly like Bangladesh food". I was happy to have been able to introduce the food of two of my favorite countries to Singaporeans, and also to each other.
What do you think the migrant relations will be like in five years?
It's hard to tell. I lived in Dubai for a while, and I hope to God that our migrant relations don't ever get to UAE-level, though some among you will say it's already there. I think the Little India riots, stories of idiotic Singaporean teens beating up foreign workers for fun and the occasional anti-foreigner rant you see your Facebook friends post—all of these should give us pause. I can tell you what my wishlist for migrant relations will be like: better living conditions, better food, pathways to residency, educational opportunities, more recreational options, more opportunities for Singaporeans and foreigners of other socio-economic groups to interact with migrant workers. For Singapore to be the kind of place where anybody from any background can come and make a better life for themselves and their families.
Culture Kitchen's latest edition, Mabuhay Singapore, takes place tonight at Artistry at 7pm. More information here.
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