A Quiet Change Happening During Recess
There was a time when recess meant queues, chatter, the clatter of trays and the familiar shout of stallholders calling out orders. Today, that experience is slowly fading.
In its place, in some schools, is a standardised meal box prepared in a central kitchen that is clean, efficient and predictable. And deeply different.
Chef Iskander Latiff, who has spent over 22 years in the food industry and sometimes helps run his wife’s school canteen stall, believes this shift deserves more attention than it is getting.
“It is easier said than done,” he wrote in a recent Instagram post.
“There are pros and cons. But the real question is — do we care enough to keep it as part of our school system and as part of growing up?”
The Lessons That May not Appear Elsewhere
A school canteen was never just about eating. He explains, at the stalls, students learnt how to choose. How to decide between noodles or rice when money was tight. How to calculate change quickly. How to speak up, negotiate politely, and interact with adults outside the classroom.
They learnt kindness too.
“Don’t worry,” a child might say to a friend. “I blanja you today.”
Those small moments shaped social skills, empathy and independence.
Behind the Counter: What Running a Canteen Really Takes
It appears clear that nostalgia alone cannot keep canteens alive. From his years operating a stall, he learned two key things:
“1. We need a solid system to be sustainable. Sustainable menu and sustainable workflow. 2. We need to look at it as a proper business. Not as a charity or just to pass time.”
While rental may be relatively low, other costs rise constantly — utilities, manpower, food prices, and Healthier Choice requirements. As he noted in the comments:
“Canteen vendors is a manpower issue, not many want to do this business anymore. High inflation of food cost and low margin is a bad combo for any business to be sustainable.”
A Simple Idea That Could Change Everything
Chef Iskander offered a proposal as a starting point. What if parents collectively supported canteen stallholders through a small monthly retainer?
For example:
- $2 per student per month
- Around 1,500 students per school
- That works out to $3,000 monthly
- Split across six stalls, about $500 per stall
That amount, he elaborates, could help offset utilities and support healthier food choices, without pushing meal prices beyond what families can afford.
“Well some may say $500 is not enough. Trust me, with menu price at $2–3 per student, that $500 is a lot.”
More importantly, such support could attract younger operators to take over from ageing stallholders — ensuring continuity, stalling slow disappearance.
A Morning Inside a Still-Working Canteen
In his video, Chef Iskander documents a full morning of preparation at his wife’s canteen stall.
At 7:00am, pasta aglio-olio goes on. By 7:23am, breaded chicken tenders enter the oven.
Garlic toasties follow. Roast chicken, fresh lettuce, cucumbers and washed apples complete the line-up.
By 9:00am, everything is ready.
The final plate: pasta aglio-olio with roast chicken or baked chicken tenders, a side salad, and an apple.
Price: $3.50.
The response online was immediate.
“How is that $3.50?” one commenter asked.
Another parent said they still preferred canteen stalls because children learnt confidence, money values and respect through ordering food themselves.
Others praised the inclusion of salads — a rarity in many school canteens.
One parent shared that her son regularly talks about the food from the stall, calling it the “best school menu”.
What We Choose to Keep
Chef Iskander is not arguing that central kitchens are evil, or that change is always bad. He acknowledges that some schools have no choice.
He concludes:
“There is a saying, that it takes a village to raise a child. We decide to take it all away from our current generation. Assalamualikum.”
Find Chef Iskander’s post here.
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