[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/i-started-a-business-for-my-special-needs-child\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/i-started-a-business-for-my-special-needs-child\/","headline":"“I Started a Business for my Special Needs Child”","name":"“I Started a Business for my Special Needs Child”","description":"The SOS Kitchen\u00a0 When Shilpa Sharma noticed that her eighteen-month-old son Saahil was not hitting the same milestones as her first-born daughter, she suspected something was amiss. Saahil was diagnosed with autism at the age of three.\u00a0 \u201cI was in complete denial for the first six months,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard pill to swallow, […]","datePublished":"2021-09-23","dateModified":"2022-06-29","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/#Person","name":"Rachel Teng","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/","identifier":367,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/S3-Feature-1280-X-626-px.png","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/S3-Feature-1280-X-626-px.png","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/i-started-a-business-for-my-special-needs-child\/","commentCount":"2","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/i-started-a-business-for-my-special-needs-child\/#Comment1","dateCreated":"2026-04-27 18:46:28","description":"Thanks for simplifying a difficult subject.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Brown salomon shoes","url":"https:\/\/globalshoepalace.com\/product-category\/women\/Salomon-Women-Shoes"}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/i-started-a-business-for-my-special-needs-child\/#Comment2","dateCreated":"2026-04-25 08:18:24","description":"I felt like this was written just for me.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Salomon x ultra 5 gtx hiking shoes","url":"https:\/\/globalshoepalace.com\/product-category\/men\/Salomon-Men-Shoes"}}],"about":["Community","Food","Singapore"],"wordCount":1414,"keywords":["call me by name","children","chilli jams","chilli sauces","differently abled","differently abled persons","food","inclusive workplace","parents","social enterprise","soul food","special needs","the sos kitchen"],"articleBody":"The SOS Kitchen\u00a0When Shilpa Sharma noticed that her eighteen-month-old son Saahil was not hitting the same milestones as her first-born daughter, she suspected something was amiss. Saahil was diagnosed with autism at the age of three.\u00a0\u201cI was in complete denial for the first six months,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard pill to swallow, but my husband pushed me to face reality, and deal with it together, head-on.\u201d\u00a0With dedicated therapy over the years, Saahil has now managed to overcome his sensitivity to sensory stimuli, such as the sound of the pressure cooker or the vacuum cleaner. \u201cThese days, he mainly faces social anxiety and does not necessarily know how to keep a conversation going, especially with strangers,\u201d she adds.\u00a0Autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a broad range of conditions, one of which is having a very intense and focused interest in specific areas. For Saahil, this happens to be food. \u201cI think that\u2019s the thing with autism. If you have a certain obsession and you make it work for you, it might turn out to be the greatest gift,\u201d says Mrs Sharma.\u00a0According to her, apart from writing murder mysteries, her 23-year-old son is a big foodie and has an extremely developed palate. \u201cGive him a chilli anywhere along the Scoville scale and he will try it,\u201d she says. It was during his last year studying online at the University of Sydney that Mrs Sharma decided to capitalise on his interests.\u00a0Shilpa Sharma and her son, Saahil Sharma. (Photo courtesy of Shilpa Sharma)\u201cWe knew that a 9-to-5 job was out the window,\u201d she says. \u201cEven [neurotypical] folks often get workplace anxiety and stress, so you can imagine what a special needs individual will be going through. It\u2019s not easy.\u201d\u00a0While it is very important that Saahil is able to support himself in the long run, it isn\u2019t just about accepting any employment opportunity that comes his way. Mrs Sharma found that playing to his strengths is crucial.\u00a0\u201cHe has tried working as a waiter in a cafe with an inclusive hiring policy before, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what he was set out for,\u201d she says. \u201cSaahil is more creative, and when he\u2019s in the kitchen putting flavours together, that\u2019s where he really shines.\u201dIt was Saahil himself who decided to start experimenting with sauces and he came up with the name for their business, The SOS Kitchen. He questions the norm of having only sweet jams and wonders why people don\u2019t make spicy jams, and \u201cwants to make sauces so spicy that you\u2019d have to call the ambulance,\u201d Mrs Sharma says.\u00a0Started during the Covid-19, the mother-son duo\u2019s business now has at least 200 returning customers. It is also featured on multiple e-commerce platforms and physical stores, and sells between 800 and 1,000 jars monthly.\u00a0\u201cI think the pandemic has worked for us. Then people could no longer go out to eat, so they started cooking at home,\u201d she says. \u201cBut they wanted easy, affordable recipes and ready-to-eat sauces. That\u2019s our appeal and we\u2019ve even made it our hashtag \u2014 #cookingmadeeasy.\u201d\u00a0\ufeffSaahil is involved in every part of the business \u2014 from accounting to social media marketing, and even liaising with and pitching to potential stakeholders such as NTUC, Shopee, and Phoon Huat. \u201cIt\u2019s all for him, it\u2019s his business. The end goal is for him to take over the entire enterprise one day,\u201d she adds.\u00a0With no prior experience in the F&B industry, Mrs Sharma, a dancer by profession, and her son have garnered much backing and support from food startup accelerator, Innovate 360, as well as their OEM partner, Thai Sing.\u00a0Mrs Sharma doesn\u2019t view her son\u2019s autism as taboo. \u201cIf anything, his obsession with food was how our business came about,\u201d she says. At the same time, they avoid actively advertising The SOS Kitchen as a special needs business. \u201cWe don\u2019t want people to buy a product only because it is made by somebody on the spectrum, but because the product itself is good,\u201d she says.\u00a0Moving forward, Mrs Sharma hopes that neurotypical people take more active steps to befriend special needs individuals like Saahil. \u201cIt\u2019s a common misconception that people with special needs have no compassion or empathy, but often they have more than anyone else,\u201d she says.Soul Food\u00a0Husband and wife duo, Gerald Png and Anne Wong-Png, started Soul Food on 11 January 2008, with their differently-abled daughter Cheryl in mind. She was then 16. But the idea of starting a business for her dated way before that.\u00a0\u201cIt was my hope for Cheryl to be gainfully employed and contribute meaningfully to society,\u201d says Mr Png. \u201cIn those days, the general awareness, as well as options for training and employment for those with special needs, were few and far between.\u201d\u00a0The pair noticed then that their daughter had an inclination for food preparation. From a very young age, she was already percolating coffee and making breakfast for them. \u201cI think it was the sensory experience and affirmation that she cherishes,\u201d says Mrs Wong-Png.\u00a0https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/WhatsApp-Video-2021-09-19-at-14.30.51-1.mp4Soul Food’s slogan, “Made by Many Hands”, signifies the duo\u2019s dedication to make every employee an essential contributor to the business. (Video courtesy of Anne Wong-Png)Mr Png gradually started getting her more and more involved, and it sparked the idea that they should start a food business. This birthed Soul Food. \u201cWe had hoped that Cheryl would benefit from not just a job, but a community,\u201d he says.\u00a0Thirteen years on, Soul Food has expanded to an inclusive team entirely made up of differently-abled people and the couple has taken about 30 differently-abled individuals under their wing, looking beyond labels and identifying inclinations instead.\u00a0Soul Food\u2019s slogan \u201cMade by Many Hands\u201d, signifies the duo\u2019s dedication to make every employee an essential contributor to the business. \u201cOur differently-abled team is not just expected to do basic tasks such as cleaning tables, wiping chairs, and mopping floors,\u201d says Mrs Wong-Png.\u00a0Employees are gradually given opportunities to pick up new skills based on how ready they are. \u201cFor instance, Anne manages the front-of-house (FOH), where it\u2019s much more dynamic because guests may have different needs and expectations,\u201d says Mr Png. Mrs Wong-Png helps identify those with the potential for the FOH service, with the ultimate goal of having everyone on the team be seen and heard.\u00a0Having no playbook for employers of differently-abled individuals, Mr Png shared that it has been a steep learning curve, and the couple highlights that working closely with each staff member and his or her family is key.\u00a0\u201cFamily support and trust is key to our success in training and honing the skills of our team, and we endeavour to build good working relationships with them,\u201d says Mrs Wong-Png. Having said that, the parents of staff members are often reminded that Soul Food is a business and not a caregiver service at the end of the day.\u00a0Other than the creative aspect of tinkering with recipes, Mr Png shares that his staff has to learn the culinary discipline of sanitising workstations and cooking equipment, which help to impart important and transferable skills to other aspects of life.\u00a0\u201cEven if our staff members or their parents decide that they no longer want to be a part of our team one day, they would have at least gained both tangible and intangible life skills for themselves, such as discipline, and cooking and cleaning up after themselves,\u201d adds Mr Png.\u00a0Over the years, the restaurant outlet has built a community of regular patrons who have been fundamental in creating a safe space for the staff. \u201cWe regularly share with many of our guests-turned-friends how to interact appropriately with our team, and to excuse them if they don\u2019t respond or walk away when they feel overwhelmed at times,\u201d says Mrs Wong-Png.Gerald Png, Anne Wong-Png, and their daughter, Cheryl. Mrs Wong-Png started the Family Inclusion Network and wrote a book compiling the stories of special needs individuals in Singapore, titled, “Call me by Name”. (Photo courtesy of Anne Wong-Png)Note: TheHomeGround Asia acknowledges that preferred terms for special needs individuals might vary. The terms above are used in accordance with our interviewees\u2019 preferred terms.\u00a0Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"“I Started a Business for my Special Needs Child”","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/i-started-a-business-for-my-special-needs-child\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]