Support this group of young undergrads who are helping the less fortunate via the setting of a cafe
Tucked along a quiet path in the heart of bustling Orchard Road is Sidewalk Gallery Café, a café run by humble yet passionate people who aim to provide good food while aiding the less fortunate at the same time.
Sidewalk Gallery Café, located on one side of the YMCA building, is a café and social enterprise programme that provides on-job training to beneficiaries with special needs, through which they learn skills and gain work experience that will increase their chances of full-time employment at any Food & Beverage (F&B) outlet.
How the Café is Run
Sidewalk Gallery Cafe is a Uni-Y@NUS student initiative, and is run by students from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Uni-Y (University YMCAs) is a student-run service club of YMCA that strives to make a difference to its beneficiaries as well as to its volunteers.
YMCA has its own Uni-Y in each of the three main universities in Singapore – NUS, NTU and SMU.
Uni-Y believes in developing volunteers to be servant leaders through three main programmes: Community Service, Social Enterprise and International Service Programme.
Some of the ways in which YMCA helps the initiative include providing the space and the setting for the café, and linking the volunteers with those who are potential trainees and staff, whom they can help.
by Uni-Y and is run by NUS students
Who Benefits?
Essentially, the cafe aims to provide work exposure for the intellectually-challenged, allowing them to better integrate into society through interaction with customers. Through this interaction and work exposure, their chances of full-time employment at any F&B establishment are also increased.
Currently, Tai Yuan, 27 years old, is the sole beneficiary in the programme. The people behind Sidewalk Gallery Café are eager to bring in more beneficiaries in the near future.
“We provide them with work experience by training them how to find customers a place to sit, to take orders and to serve them. But the main thing is for them to interact with the public, so that they are better able to integrate into society and to help themselves,” says Sherlyn Teo, an undergraduate and one of the volunteers in Uni-Y@NUS helping to run Sidewalk Gallery Cafe.
All the volunteers there are from Uni-Y@NUS, and come from different faculties of the university.
Sidewalk Gallery Cafe also serves as a channel for its customers to better understand these beneficiaries through greater interaction with them, thus resulting in greater acceptance and understanding of the intellectually-challenged in our society.
Savoury to Sweet
Sidewalk Gallery Café’s menu is described as “American, breakfast and brunch”. There is savoury fare such as Beef Lasagna and Chicken Mushroom Tarts.
There are also dessert and snack items, such as the Molten Lava Cake, salads, and nachos with cheese. Beverages include Sidewalk Specialty Iced Tea, brewed coffee and juices.
Sidewalk Gallery Café was set up in Oct 2011. This year, it re-opened in mid-August after a month’s hiatus, with a new menu.
Do lend this group of big-hearted young people and their beneficiaries your support by paying a visit to Sidewalk Gallery Café.
Sidewalk Gallery Café is open every Sunday, 9am-5pm, at YMCA, 1 Orchard Road, Singapore 238824.
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