“What is most important for me is making sure these children have enough food to eat and fill their stomachs. That makes them study well, because if they go (to class) with hungry stomachs, they can’t study.”
She also aims to keep her food affordable for students. For one, she has not increased prices despite inflation.
“For me, the price must be affordable. As you know, some students are not well off,” she said.
“From day one, when I started this business, I always told myself I do this for the children … When they want to eat, I make sure they have enough, and those who don’t have enough, I help them.”
Her husband Mr Junaidi Ahmad added: “Her (thinking) is that if that student is our child in another school, how would you feel that your child has no makan (food)?”
At the same time, Mdm Aini doesn’t see her job as just providing food.
She recalled how in her early days at Monk’s Hill Secondary School, she would reprimand students for using vulgar language.
“When I started in Monk’s Hill, I was very fierce with students. I will tell them: ‘Never, ever use these words. One more time you use these words, out you go,’” she recalled.
“Until you change yourself and don’t use vulgar words, I’ll let you eat. If not, go behind (in the queue) … When they come to my store, they make sure they don’t use any vulgar words.”
AN INVALUABLE HELP
Mdm Aini said she is only able to do what she does with her husband’s help. The couple have been married for close to 40 years now.
When he was working, Mr Junaidi would send her to school daily before heading to his workplace at Paya Lebar. This meant that he would be at work about two hours before he had to.
“As a husband, if you don’t give your moral support, if anything breaks down, you cannot blame her, you blame yourself because … this is your wife. It is not your neighbour, it is not your friend. If you don’t support her, who else will support her?” he said.
And Mdm Aini is appreciative.
“He always gives me support in whatever I do, always (tells me to) think positive and focus on what I am doing,” she said.
Now that he has retired, Mr Junaidi still fetches his wife to and from school daily. He also continues to join her on grocery runs on the weekends.
“I advised her not to pressure herself. Take her time, if she thinks that she cannot, she can let me know we can call it off. But she said she can,” he said.
“She loves cooking, she loves serving people and making the students happy.”
Another invaluable help for Mdm Aini is her cousin, who has been her assistant for more than a decade.