New BudgetMealGoWhere portal to help residents find cheaper meals in HDB coffee shops

SINGAPORE — A new portal has been launched to help consumers easily locate Housing and Development Board (HDB) coffee shops offering budget meals.

HDB and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) said in a joint statement on Friday (May 19) that the new “BudgetMealGoWhere” website will allow the public to search for HDB coffee shops offering budget meals near their location and view the budget meals and drinks available at these places.

This can be done by entering a postal code in the website’s search box.

A list of the coffee shops and the available budget meal options will appear, starting with those located within 2km of the postal code.

The portal will also be accessible through the LifeSG mobile application and website.

Budget meal options refer to lunch or dinner meals that are priced affordably compared to the average price of meals sold at nearby eating establishments.

These budget meals must be full meals, and not side dishes, snacks, children's meal or half-portion meals.

Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State for National Development, announced in Parliament in March that all coffee shops leased from HDB have to offer budget meal options upon their tenancy renewal starting May.

As a start, all older coffee shops leased from HDB that are due for renewal will need to provide four budget meals and two budget drinks across two or more different stalls as a condition of their tenancy renewal.

Two of the budget meals must be rice-based and one must be halal. These coffee shops must also offer at least two budget drinks, which are black coffee (kopi-o) and black tea (teh-o).

"The budget meal and drink prices will be benchmarked against economically priced food-and-beverage offerings in nearby neighbourhood coffee shops," Ms Sim said at the time.

Budget meals will progressively be offered at all 374 HDB rental coffee shops by 2026.

There are a total of 776 coffee shops in Singapore, of which 374 are under HDB and 402 are privately owned.

On the new BudgetMealGoWhere website, about 40 coffee shops are listed, with more being progressively added.

“HDB will work with GovTech to continually improve the website’s functionality and listing to make it more useful for Singaporeans, and members of the public can also provide feedback on the budget meals,” the two agencies said.

To help customers in identifying budget meals more easily, participating stalls will display the budget meal decal stickers on their food display signage, indicating the budget meals on offer.

HDB has completed 37 new coffee shops in the last five years as part of efforts to ensure that residents have access to affordable cooked food, the two agencies added.

"Another 34 coffee shops are slated for completion in the next five years, to meet the needs of residents."

WHAT PATRONS, FOOD SELLERS SAY

Commenting on the new initiative, customers and food stall owners who spoke to TODAY generally welcomed it and suggested how it can be improved.

TODAY visited three coffee shops, all of which were among the 40 participating coffee shops listed on the website. 

Most patrons could see themselves using the site, but some mentioned how it might present problems for older users. 

Madam Sissi Lin, a scientist who did not want to reveal her age, said: “I think it’s quite comprehensive. I’m just concerned because I believe there will be some older people who might want to use it. Maybe the font size of the text can be bigger (for those who find it hard to reading small print).” 

One suggested that photographs can accompany the meals being listed.

Mr Jason Lim, a 22-year-old engineer, said: “It would be nice if there are pictures of the food or reviews. Maybe it’s cheap but the portion is small. If there are pictures or reviews, people will know.”

Madam Noradila Affandi, 37, who works in the digital security field, suggested having pictures of the coffee shops for people to recognise them easily. 

Civil servant Benjamin Tan, 31, said: “They show some coffee shops that are way too far. There are a few coffee shops in Clementi but they are probably not listed yet."

Stall owners generally believed that the new website will help to bring in more customers. 

Mr Kelvin Lee, 26, who runs an economical rice stall at a coffee shop in Bukit Batok, said that he had seen about 30 more customers than usual who have bought the budget meal, which is a rice with meat and two kinds of vegetables at S$3.

The BudgetMealGoWhere website is at https://www.gowhere.gov.sg/budgetmeal/.