After suffering a stroke in July last year which affected the left side of his body, Mr Alan Gwee, 50, was jobless for six months. Then he was hired by the Timbre Group to handle the front of house and bar of its new Five & 2 restaurant at Punggol Park. His colleagues include two ex-inmates and a kidney patient who works on alternate days because he has to go for dialysis.
Five & 2 is the lifestyle group’s latest venture and the five in the bistro’s name refers to the restaurant giving one child a meal for every five meals sold and the two refers to its two social missions – feeding the underprivileged and giving meaningful employment to the marginalised.
The eatery’s employment policy is consistent with the social mission of the 12-year-old Timbre Group, which has been working with Score (Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises) for the past five years to hire ex-inmates. To help minimise the physical workload and stress for employees, technology such as automated drink dispensers from Italy that have pre-programmed cocktail concoctions are used to simplify jobs.
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Source: The Straits Times, 10 December 2017