ST Signature Series
More than fixing things: Singapore’s volunteer-led movement builds community muscle
From repairing household appliances to rescuing tonnes of unwanted food, small volunteer-led groups are plugging gaps they see around them, and their impact goes beyond the immediate problem.
Claire Huang
What do fixing broken fans and rescuing unwanted fruit and vegetables have in common?
In Singapore, both have given ordinary people a reason to do something they believe in.
Some repair appliances so old they can be new again; others save edible food that would otherwise go to waste.
Along the way, these efforts have grown into communities sharing skills, resources and responsibility – sometimes driven by uncertainty, but often simply because people saw an opportunity to make a difference.
At Repair Kopitiam, Danny Lim wants that participation to go even further. He does not want volunteers simply fixing someone else’s broken fan.
Instead, he wants the owner to pick up the tools, sit alongside a volunteer repair coach and learn how to work out what went wrong.
Lim, 58, is director of SL2 Impact, the non-profit arm of Sustainable Living Lab, a sustainability consultancy, innovation lab and social enterprise. Repair Kopitiam was started by Sustainable Living Lab in 2014 after its founders noticed usable appliances being discarded around HDB estates.
Today, repair coaches work alongside owners on everything from fans to rice cookers to vacuum cleaners, passing on practical skills that Lim believes have gradually disappeared as Singapore became more affluent, urbanised and accustomed to replacing rather than repairing things.
In 2025, more than 2,300 items were brought to its sessions, including 552 fans. Of the roughly 6.3 tonnes of items recorded, excluding those categorised as “others”, 69% by weight were repaired – recovering goods with an estimated value of more than $57,000.
Repair Kopitiam now has 10 sites and around 300 regular coaches.
But Lim is aiming beyond repairs. “Now I’m not teaching them to fish any more. I’m teaching them how to make the fishing rod.”
He is developing a troubleshooting platform where participants can tap collective repair knowledge and contribute what they have learnt for others to use.
More than food
Elsewhere, other groups are applying their instincts to very different problems.
The Red Collective’s co-founder Winnie Cheong, 52, had been involved in food rescue years before the group was formally established in 2022.
She and her co-founders spotted a particular gap: fresh fruit and vegetables were difficult for conventional food charities to handle because perishables need to be collected, sorted and redistributed quickly.
The Red Collective now links donors with smaller community groups and distribution points.
Behind it is an operation involving drivers, vehicles, loading arrangements, distribution points and pallets of goods.
Cheong jokes that on some days she feels like a logistics coordinator. The work, as she describes it, is “not glamorous” but “heavy, dirty and dusty”.
Still, The Red Collective grew from an initial core of around 20 to 30 volunteers to more than 100, with tasks ranging from collection to distribution. It collects an estimated 23.6 tonnes of food a month, mostly vegetables and bakery items.
Here, too, the idea is not to do everything for everybody.
The Red Collective collects food from vendors and partners and distributes it to smaller local community groups, who then run their own ground operations.
Cheong believes this gives the model longevity because there is “co-creation at every single level”, while giving people within individual neighbourhoods the confidence and leadership skills to organise themselves.
Colin Tan, 47, is one of those doing it on the ground.
His food rescue and distribution programme in Haig Road began almost accidentally during the Covid-19 pandemic, after a supplier handed him a large bag of bread and baked goods and asked him to give them away rather than waste them. It is now into its fifth year.
He runs it on top of his day job in events management.
Yet it is the relationships, rather than the food, that keep him going.
“Because I live here as well... these people I got to know are my neighbours,” he says, adding that the familiarity “creates that whole kampung feeling”.
“Instead of ignoring each other, people have gotten comfortable with one another and the community is a bit closer,” says Tan.
A movement that outlasted Covid-19
Ground-up action is not new, but the pandemic produced a marked surge. The National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre’s (NVPC) inaugural Groundup Initiative Study 2023, released in January 2024, found that 109 ground-ups were formed in 2020, compared with 28 in 2019.
NVPC estimated that around 450 were active and of known status. Its definition covers ground-ups as voluntary, self-organised, not-for-profit community initiatives that are not registered organisations.
Support for the ecosystem has since expanded.
In 2024, national platform BAGUS Together was launched to connect ground-ups with resources and partners, while Budget 2026 introduced a $50 million SG Partnerships Fund to help citizen-led initiatives start, grow and, in some cases, scale.
Justin Lee, senior research fellow and head of IPS Policy Lab, says he thinks there is a “thirst for community” and a desire to participate in purposeful activities beyond recreational or hobby groups.
Such groups play a useful role because policies operate at a broad level while relationships are built at the micro level, he says.
People with different skills and lived experiences can come together to solve practical problems.
In doing so, they build what Lee calls “civic capacity” or the ability to identify problems, pool resources and try to solve them through collective initiative.
Fridge Restock Community SG offers another example.
It began in November 2020 after founder Daniel Yap saw large amounts of food being discarded at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre when the pandemic had left some people struggling financially.
From 13,900kg rescued in its first two months, the group has collected more than 630,400kg in the first nine months of 2026.
It now has about 80 active volunteers and supplies 46 distribution points, with 2025 data putting its reach at some 6,700 households a month.
Fridge Restock Community SG’s volunteer Caroline Chia says demand can be intense as queues at its largest distribution point at Bishan Community Club can reach 500 people.
She adds that the group makes it a point not to means-test those receiving rescued food, partly because some households struggling financially may fall outside formal assistance schemes and others may be uncomfortable proving that they need help.
Working together
Running such groups is not easy.
There are volunteers to find and retain, operations to organise and bills to pay.
But Repair Kopitiam’s Lim sees another obstacle – mindset.
He recalls another repair initiative initially being viewed as his competitor. His response was simple: “You think I can take care of the whole of Singapore?”
There are more broken appliances than his volunteers can fix.
He says if another group repairs them instead, the original goal of keeping usable things out of the waste stream is still being met.
For Lim, greater collaboration and sharing of knowledge are part of building resilience.
IPS Policy Lab’s Lee sees a similar challenge.
Singapore, he says, has lost some of the communal relationships and kampung culture of the past as people increasingly turn to markets and public services to meet their needs.
“We have transactions instead of community, so it is now awkward for neighbours to get to know one another and offer to help,” he says.
Saving a bag of apples or a fan will not by itself make Singapore more resilient to the next crisis.
But Lee says communities that are used to identifying problems, pooling resources and drawing on different skills may be better equipped to deal with future challenges.
He adds that Singapore could do better at giving participants a meaningful say in community-led groups, which could unlock a wider pool of skills, strengths and ideas.
Perhaps that is Lim’s fishing rod: not merely solving today’s problem, but giving people the skills, confidence and one another to tackle tomorrow’s.
Elevated insights from seasoned perspectives. Crafted by journalists. Powered by Purpose: The Straits Times Signature Series is a new editorial project helmed by experienced journalists to shine a light on people, themes and ideas that rarely get the attention they deserve in everyday news cycles.
This article is part of a special collaboration between The Straits Times and Nexus – the lead agency that drives Singapore’s national education and Total Defence efforts – to spotlight national issues.
The writer was a journalist at The Straits Times’ business desk.