Father Opens Pizza Stall In Jurong For 16-Year-Old Son With Autism
It is not uncommon to find parents going out of their way to support their children.
This is no different for Zhang Han Li (transliterated from Chinese) — a 56-year-old businessman. He decided to set up a pizza stall at Taman Jurong Food Centre for his 16-year-old son with autism.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
By involving his son in running the stall, he hopes this will help his son to support himself in the future.
Father ventures into the food and catering industry to support son
According to Shin Min Daily News, Zhang works in the chemical material industry. However, as he grows closer to retirement — coupled with his declining business — he found it important to prepare for his son’s future.
His 16-year-old son has autism. However, Zhang highlighted that his son is extremely energetic and has strong learning abilities.
In fact, his son is extremely adept at routine tasks. Furthermore, he loves to eat pizza.
Putting the two together, Zhang realised that working at a hawker stall may be suitable for his son.
Thus, Zhang chose to venture into the food and catering industry in hopes of helping his son support himself in the future.
Son helps out at the pizza stall every day
In 2021, Zhang started working on making the pizza stall a reality. He spent time learning how to make pizza from Caucasian chefs and took over a year to finally settle on a suitable space at Taman Jurong Food Centre.
The stall is reportedly spacious with lower human traffic around the area, making it more suitable for his son.
Although his family lives in Pasir Ris, Zhang decided to rent the space and take a leap of faith.
According to Shin Min Daily News, within three months of opening the stall, Zhang found himself to be extremely busy. Not only did he have to manage his chemical material business during the day, but he also had to spend time preparing ingredients for the stall.
Furthermore, he would man the stall by himself for three nights every week.
However, his son with autism would also help to pitch in, assisting in folding 30 pizza boxes every day before school.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Initially, many of Zhang’s friends felt that the pizza stall business was not a good idea. They felt that being a hawker is extremely tiring and that it’d be difficult to achieve a successful business with just a hawker stall.
However, they eventually grew to support him and even bought him a pizza oven as a gift to use at the stall.
They make only 80 servings of pizza every day
Not long after, their pizza stall business improved tremendously, selling 80 to 100 pizzas in just three hours every day.
Despite the booming business, Zhang decided that he would only prepare 80 servings worth of ingredients every day.
Shin Min Daily News reports that Zhang does not want the pizza business to affect his family’s daily routines. The most important thing to him is creating a strong foundation for his son when he eventually takes over the pizza business.
It is truly incredible to see Zhang going to such great lengths to support his son.
If you would like to give their pizza a taste, you can pay them a visit at 168 Neapolitan Style Pizza.
Here’s how you can get there:
Address: 3 Yung Sheng Rd, #03-168, Singapore 618499
Opening hours: 6pm – 9pm (Thursday, Friday and Saturday)
Nearest MRT: Lakeside and Boon Lay stations
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News and Burpple.
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