This Singaporean is bringing back the kampung spirit with community void deck dinners

This Singaporean is bringing back the kampung spirit with community void deck dinners Mr Ngoh Shian Bang started by turning his Tampines void deck into a communal dining space, bringing neighbours and strangers together over free food. SINGAPORE: One month, photojournalist Ngoh Shian Bang was churning ice cream for strangers. The next, he was grilling steaks for them. Every month, the 32-year-old organises a community meal, bringing together neighbours, friends and strangers over food. His first was held at the void deck below his Tampines home. Mr Ngoh started Kampung Soup Kitchen in May, organising free community meals with a different menu each time. He has held six gatherings so far. MORE THAN JUST COOKING Preparations for each gathering typically begin about a month in advance. For a locally inspired National Day barbecue in Tampines on Aug 30, Mr Ngoh planned six stations serving dishes such as chicken, fish, beef and desserts, incorporating local flavours including kaya, laksa and sambal. On the day itself, work began as early as 9am, with about 10 to 12 volunteers helping with preparations. Mr Ngoh’s passion for food led him to hospitality school SHATEC, where he graduated in 2015. He began hosting dinner parties for friends and, over time, discovered that much of the joy he got from cooking came from sharing food with others. “What I really enjoy is feeding people, and the experience and joy from feeding people is something that is so memorable and that you can't take away from,” he said. After the COVID-19 pandemic, that desire to bring people together over food took on another purpose. Mr Ngoh began thinking more deeply about social isolation and the need for people to connect in person. “Ironically, we have more potential to connect digitally, but there's less reason for us to be present in person,” he said. That led him to think about how to open up his dinner table to a wider community. HOW IT STARTED Mr Ngoh had joined a social Telegram group chat and wanted to organise food activities with people he had never met. But private venues were expensive, so he asked the group for potential venue spaces. One member, coincidentally named Soup, suggested a void deck, saying he had previously organised an 80-person potluck at his. “That sparked the idea that void decks are also a potential space that I can use to host activities, we have events like weddings, funerals, birthday parties sometimes. So why not like other community activities too?” About 50 people attended Mr Ngoh’s first gathering in May – a mix of friends, strangers and curious neighbours. Some neighbours who had not seen each other for a long time crossed paths at the event and started chatting. Afterwards, Mr Ngoh said his phone was “buzzing all the time for two weeks” with messages from people. “I had no expectations that it would blow up to this level,” he said. GROWING IN STRENGTH Since then, interest has continued to grow. For the National Day barbecue, 100 people registered, with another 163 on the waiting list. Those on the wait list were welcome to drop by, although Mr Ngoh could not guarantee there would be enough food for everyone. He has also built a community of 48 volunteers, though not everyone helps at every event. Mr Ngoh has funded the gatherings from his own pocket, spending about $2,800 of his savings so far. “At the moment, I'm doing it through my own funds because I believe that if you want to start something, I think you should put in the effort to mean it,” he said. “And if that takes a bit of money from my end, I'm more than happy to do so.” Mr Ngoh sees the gatherings as a way of bringing back the kampung spirit. “From childhood, what I really remember was the neighbours inviting me for like Malay weddings, or sometimes we pay respect to neighbours at Chinese funerals,” he said. “I just wanted to make it feel that it's less lonely within the neighbourhood spaces you live in and perhaps this is one of my interpretations of what the kampung spirit can be.” Some volunteers have even travelled across the island to help, including one who came from Bukit Panjang to Tampines. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Mr Ngoh has already begun taking Kampung Soup Kitchen beyond Tampines. On Sep 19, he teamed up with youth-led Chop Community at Chong Pang Zone 7 Residents’ Network for a pizza party in Yishun where they fed about 90 people. “My hope is that I can do this at every single resident network … just because I'm not from that place doesn't mean I can't serve them.” He also wants to inspire other Singaporeans to start community gatherings of their own. A group of young people from Jurong West has already approached him about organising something similar. Mr Ngoh said he has shared steps they could follow to start an initiative in their own neighbourhood. For him, food is a natural way to bring people together – whether they are celebrating a wedding or a promotion or grieving a breakup or loss of a loved one. “Regardless of our differences, we can all come to a dinner table and come and have a good meal together,” he said. “I think that really brings back the human spirit of how we connect with one another.”