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A first of its kind vending machine "cafe" serving hot
meals, sandwiches, snacks and drinks at all hours of the day was
launched at the void deck of Block 320C Anchorvale Drive on Sunday
(Aug 7).
Anchorvale's VendCafe, operated by JR Vending, is a
cluster of six vending machines accompanied by stand-up dining
tables.
Two Chef-In-Box machines dispense hot meals in under
three minutes, offering Western and local fare such as seafood hor
fun and spaghetti bolognese.
The roster of 30 meals will be rotated, and are priced
between $3.50 and $5.
Meals can also be purchased frozen for later
consumption.
Other machines sell freshly squeezed orange juice, hot
beverages and grab-and-go items such as wraps and snacks.
The pilot project is jointly facilitated by Spring
Singapore and the Housing Development Board (HDB). There are plans
to roll out more VendCafes in the coming year, which may involve
other operators.
Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam launched
the Anchorvale VendCafe on Sunday morning, and sampled
Chef-in-Box's salted egg yolk pasta with shrimp.
Mr Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for
Economic and Social Policies, noted the current manpower shortage,
particularly in the food and beverage sector.
"The F&B sector takes up almost five per cent of
our total workforce, and it's still growing as a sector, but we
can't keep growing manpower, in particular foreign manpower. So we
have to find ways of using technology without compromising
consumers' desire for taste, health, nutrition and convenience," he
said.
"So this is one of the experiments, and it's very
common in places like Japan, Taiwan and the UK."
Mr Tharman said that while it may take a while for
consumers to take to the concept, they will become used to it once
more VendCafes are deployed across the island.
Sengkang West MP and Minister of State for Health Lam
Pin Min said that the area was perfect for Singapore's first
VendCafe.
"Sengkang West is a very young estate, the oldest flat
is only about 15 years old and there are many new BTO flats that
are coming along. Over the years I've received feedback from
residents that we need to have more amenities in the area,
including coffee shops," said Dr Lam.
"But this is one of earliest precincts in Sengkang
West, it is quite built up so it's not feasible to have another
coffee shop nearby. Therefore, having the VendCafe in this area
brilliant idea."
JR Group's chief executive officer Jocelyn Chng said
that the town council will send someone to clean the area every
morning, though JR staff will be educating residents on machine use
and clean up as well.
ST