Press Release - Food Republic and ITE Collaborate to Launch Young Hawker Entrepreneurship Incubator Programme

Singapore, 29 August 2022 – Continuing its mission to “unite people through good food”, Food Republic collaborates with Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to launch a Young Hawker

Entrepreneurship Incubator Programme. Titled “FRITE”, the objective of this Entrepreneurship Incubation is to provide an opportunity for final year Technical Diploma and Higher Nitec in Culinary Arts students to operate a “live” food and beverage business. 

In the years leading up to the successful inscription of Singapore’s Hawker Culture on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Food Republic has constructed a conducive ecosystem to help existing and aspiring young-generation hawkers to encourage continuity of our nation’s prized yet unfortunately waning culture. Hawker tenants plying their trade in Food Republic’s umbrella of outlets receive a full range of branding, operational and administrative support. The same level of support in Food Republic’s ecosystem will be offered to the Culinary Arts students to hone their creativity in F&B concept ideation, menu development, costing, and to test-bed their F&B ideas in a real setting and manage operational issues associated with running an F&B business.

To further assist the students in setting up and running their first F&B business successfully, Food Republic will be offering a fully equipped food stall in its prime Orchard Road location at Shaw

Centre at a nominal rental. “Preserving Singapore’s heritage food culture has always been a core pillar of Food Republic. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with ITE to groom the next generation of food and beverage champions who will potentially continue our waning Hawker culture when they have tasted success just like the many new generation of young hawker business owners operating in Food Republic,” expresses Mr. Andy Kiu, General Manager of Food Republic. 

“FRITE will serve as a capstone of students’ learning, allowing them to apply the concepts and skills learnt during their course into the hawkerpreneurship project. We hope that this opportunity  will stir our students’ interest and give them the appetite to take the first steps to start and run their own hawker business”, said Ms Alice Seow, Principal of ITE College West. 

The first “FRITE” project is slated to begin this November. Besides receiving guidance from the ITE and Food Republic management teams, ITE culinary arts graduate and chef-owner of the hawker chain Burgs, Mr. Shah Indra, has been invited as an advisor to the culinary arts students.