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A rather smart-looking halal takeaway bakery has recently popped up in the heartlands, and netizens have taken to Facebook food groups to gush about its good-value bakes. Besides offering sweet deals like $3.50 croissant sandwiches and $1.80 muffins, Providence Cafe & Bakery has a meaningful practice of hiring , including patients with disabilities.  No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . 1 6 The HDB cafe is owned by iFood, a social enterprise that aims to give job opportunities to those in need. iFood also owns Good News Cafe, which has a similar menu to Providence, the main difference being that Providence is halal-certified. 2 6 Over 60 percent of their staff are seniors There are six Providence cafe outlets islandwide, three of them located in schools. This Toa Payoh outlet which opened on 29 May 2024 is the first one in the heartlands, with the other two located at Buona Vista and Stamford Road. The Stamford Road outlet is a takeaway kiosk, while the Buona Vista branch has dine-in. iFood’s CEO, Alvin Sabai, 59, tells that “we opened shop in Toa Payoh ‘cos there are a lot of elderly folks here and some of them need to continue working, but nobody wants to hire them.” According to him, iFood mostly hires “elders, stroke patients, or patients with some sort of disability”. He explains: “We work with lots of NGOs (Nongovernmental Organisations) like Enabling Village and National Kidney Foundation (NKF). They come to us with patients with disabilities, and we try to hire them to function within our environment.”  Currently, over 60 percent of the staff at the Providence chain are over 60 years old, and in the Toa Payoh outlet, all three of its staff are seniors. When they’re hired, they undergo a simple four-day training session, which equips them with the skills needed to man the cafe and bake simple pastries. The elderly staff typically work as managers, counter service staff or bakers.  To aid them in their work, iFood has also hired able-bodied staff to help out where required. 3 6 Affordable bakes from $1.80 Bakes at Providence range from $1.80 for chocolate or banana muffins t o $3.60 for a Triple Decker Ham & Cheese sandwich. Croissant sandwiches, like tuna mayo and egg mayo croissants, cost $3.50 - reasonable, considering that similar offerings at other popular chains like Delifrance cost around $8. Meanwhile, a cup of black coffee here starts from $2 and goes up to $2.50 for a caffe latte. 4 6 Mövenpick ice cream sold here The most ‘luxe’ item here is probably Mövenpick ice cream from Switzerland, which costs $4.20 a scoop. Flavours offered include Swiss Chocolate and Espresso Croquant. Alvin adds that they’ve specifically chosen to sell Movenpick ice cream as it’s not offered in the area: “We don’t want to sell any other brands of ice cream because there are other vendors [selling them] in the vicinity, and we don’t want to ‘kill’ the vendors.” 5 6 Besides their regular bakes, Providence’s Toa Payoh outlet also sells exclusive hot local desserts, like Red and Green Bean Soup ($2.50) to cater to the older population in the area.  According to Alvin, the bakes at Providence are sourced from “the same suppliers that supply to hotels”. They get their bakes semi-finished or in dough form, and bake them to completion in-house.  6 6 Alvin says their rationale for keeping prices low is simple: “If we have reasonable prices, we should get sufficient customers. And if we get sufficient customers, we can then reciprocate by hiring more of the elderly. There’s no point operating if we can’t get enough sales and can’t hire anybody, ’cos then we’ve failed in our mission,” he explains.  Providence Cafe & Bakery’s Toa Payoh outlet is at Blk 234, 234 Lor 8 Toa Payoh, S310234. Open Mon - Fri 8.30am - 7pm. Closed on Sat & Sun. More info via their website and Instagram . Photos: Providence Cafe & Bakery No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . 8days.sg is now on #tiktok! Follow us on www.tiktok.com/@8dayseat