• The 38th edition of FairPrice’s signature community initiative continues to provide needy students with access to educational resources
• Members of public are encouraged to donate textbooks at 77 selected FairPrice stores islandwide including Warehouse Club, FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, FairPrice Finest stores, selected supermarkets, and FairPrice Xpress outlets at Esso service stations
• To ensure the safety of all volunteers and members of public, FairPrice will adopt strict safety measures, which includes extending the distribution period and allocating time slots for the collection of textbooks

SINGAPORE, 29 October 2020 – NTUC FairPrice (FairPrice) today launched its signature community initiative, FairPrice Share-A-Textbook Project. As the Project enters its 38th year, it continues to stay relevant especially during these unprecedented times, to help reduce educational expenses for students from low-income families or families who have been financially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It also rallies the community to do good and foster community spiritedness, while championing a sustainable environment by promoting reusing and recycling. This year, 77 selected FairPrice stores including Warehouse Club, FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, FairPrice Finest stores, selected supermarkets, and FairPrice Xpress outlets at Esso service stations will serve as donation drop-off points from today to 30 November 2020.

Mr Seah Kian Peng, Group CEO, NTUC FairPrice, said, “Covid-19 has disrupted our economy and our daily lives, which has further impacted the less fortunate in our community. Despite challenging circumstances, we will continue with our signature community initiative, FairPrice Share-A-Textbook. Through this initiative, we hope to create a positive social impact by allowing students from less privileged background gain access to resources for their educational needs.”

The launch was held at Our Tampines Hub and officiated by Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Education and Foreign Affairs, and attended by Mr Seah Kian Peng, Group CEO, FairPrice Group, along with key community partners of the initiative.

Since the launch of the project, FairPrice’s Share-A-Textbook has collected, redistributed and recycled over 5.8 million textbooks. This year, FairPrice calls for the continued support from members of the community to donate their used textbooks at the designated collection points.

(For a full list of collection points, please refer to the Appendix below).

Strict safety measures in place to ensure the well-being of volunteers and members of the public

To ensure the safety of the public and volunteers, various measures will be introduced to adhere to safe distancing measures. Besides splitting into smaller teams to handle the sorting of textbooks, all volunteers are provided with care packs consisting of wet wipes, disposable gloves and hand sanitizer.

This year, the textbooks collection area will be divided into two zones with a cap on the total number of people – including beneficiaries, members of the public and volunteers – allowed into each zone at any given time. Forms for the pre-booking of collection time slots will be made available for beneficiaries under the priority scheme and the general public – a total of 10 collection time slots are available each day, and no more than 20 bookings of two persons each will be allowed for each time slot per zone. (For more information, please refer to https://www.fairprice.com.sg/wps/portal/fp/share-a-textbook/faq or email fptextbook@fairprice.com.sg). High-touch surfaces within the collection zones will also be sanitised after the end of each session.

FairPrice will work with social service organisations and Community Development Councils (CDCs) to shortlist students from low-income families, or families who have been impacted by the Covid-19 situation, where they will be given priority to collect textbooks before access is given to the general public. The books will be available for the public to collect from 13 to 16 December 2020 at Our Tampines Hub. The number of distribution days will extend from two days in previous years to five days to facilitate collection of books in adherence to Covid-19 safety measures.

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Appendix – List of FairPrice Stores for Donation of Textbooks