800 students also received $600,000 worth of Study Grants from FairPrice

NTUC FairPrice today urged the public to recycle and donate used school textbooks that are in the current curriculum for the 29th FairPrice Share-A-Textbook Project. The public can donate their textbooks at all FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra outlets, from 10 November until 30 November 2011.

At the launch of the 29th FairPrice Share a Textbook project at FairPrice Xtra at nex mall today, FairPrice also announced that it is giving away $600,000 worth of study grants to 800 needy students, ranging from primary school to tertiary students. These recipients are children of lower-income FairPrice members and FairPrice employees. The grants range from $200 for primary students to $3000 for tertiary students.

Commenting on FairPrice’s efforts to reach out to needy students, Mr Seah Kian Peng, CEO (Singapore), NTUC FairPrice said, “We know that providing for your children’s educational needs are as important as providing for their meals. We hope that through the FairPrice Share-A-Textbook project and study grants, students from needy families will not be denied of education.”

FairPrice first started the FairPrice Used Textbook in 1983 to help needy students save school expenses and to encourage recycling and promote the value of thrift. The project was rebranded as “FairPrice Share-A-Textbook” last year to reflect the move to expand the project for deeper community engagement so that more can benefit from the project. Over the past 28 years, the project has helped more than 153,000 needy students in Singapore, with over two million used textbooks being recycled. Last year, the project collected over 230,000 textbooks and distributed them to some 15,700 students.

“We appeal to all our customers and the community to once again support this project by donating their textbooks generously. This simple act of sharing and recycling not only helps someone to have access to education but also helps to save many trees.” said Mr Seah.

Increased Community Partnerships

FairPrice Share-A-Textbook Project also sees an increased support from schools and organisations this year. Four schools will join FairPrice as community partners to collect, sort, store and function as distribution centres for the collected textbooks. The participating schools this year are Yio Chu Kang Secondary School, Changkat Changi Secondary School, Jurong West Secondary School, and Naval Base Secondary School.

10 organisations have also come on board as Supporting Partners compared to seven last year, which will assist in logistics, promotional efforts, mass community collection, sorting and distribution. They are Big Foot Logistics, Dunman High School, Hewlett-Packard Singapore, ITE College East, Ministry of Education, Montfort Secondary School, Pasir Ris Secondary School, Peicai Secondary School, Young NTUC and Young PAP are lending their support for the project.

This community initiative also engages students from all over the island as volunteers, encouraging volunteerism and promotes the spirit of community service among the youth.

This year over 700 student volunteers and volunteers from the Supporting Partners will be participating in this initiative. This is an increase of some 200 volunteers compared to last year.

The textbooks donated by members of the public will be distributed on 11 December 2011 at the Community Partner schools. Details of collection dates will be announced at all FairPrice stores. For more information on the project, the public can contact the project hotline at 6424 7505 or email at fptextbook@fairprice.com.sg