FairPrice to spend $14 million to help parents with newborns
FairPrice to spend $14 million on items such as infant formula for citizens
Parents of newborns will receive $100 worth of household items from supermarket chain FairPrice, including infant formula, diapers and other baby goods.
The FairPrice FairMily Kit will be given to all citizens born between January last year and December 2019.
It is expected to be worth $14 million in all and benefit an estimated 35,000 babies a year, or 140,000 babies over the eligibility period.
Parents can sign up at www.ntucgoodstart.sg and get a redemption card by post.
The kit was announced yesterday during the FairPrice Walks With U mass walk at the Marina Barrage.
It is part of the NTUC Good Start Bundle, also for parents of citizens born during this period, which was launched last month in partnership with the People's Association's Embracing PArenthood Movement.
The bundle includes a year of health insurance coverage for newborns through Income and a parent-child activity book. More gifts will be announced later.
Labour chief Chan Chun Sing, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said: "Together with the efforts of all the government agencies and NTUC, we can create that more pro-family environment.
ASSURANCE
"The most important thing is to give our families a sense of assurance that, when they bring up their children, Singapore can be the best place for them to bring up the children, because we have pro-family policies and because we have schemes to help our families feel assured that whatever challenges there may be in bringing up their children, we can all work this out together."
FairPrice chief executive Seah Kian Peng said: "We recognise that milk powder prices have been rising, and we want to do our part to help alleviate some of the costs with this kit."
The kit from FairPrice includes Danone Nutricia's Aptamil follow-on infant formula, a range FairPrice started bringing in last year.
Mr Seah said the chain will have new brands of milk powder by the end of next month.
"As to whether we will also look at our own house brand, that is also part of our plans, but these are early stages," he said.
The move comes after the Government implemented a number of measures to address the rising prices of milk powder in Singapore.
Mr Seah added that, earlier this year, the NTUC FairPrice Foundation-CDC Milk Fund was launched to make formula milk more affordable for low-income families, and that it is likely to be a long-term fixture.
Yesterday, the FairPrice Foundation pledged $1.2 million for grocery vouchers to about 20,000 low-income households.
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