The over 5,000 hours that NTUC FairPrice staff and management volunteered over the Lunar New Year period this year to support store operations go beyond the profit motive – $10 will be donated for every hour volunteered at the 148 FairPrice stores.
FairPrice Foundation presented the $50,000 donation to The Business Times Budding Artists Fund (BT BAF) and the Mediacorp Enable Fund (MEF) on 23 January 2020 at FairPrice Xtra at VivoCity.
The beneficiaries of the funds this year were also treated to a shopping trip where each received $50 worth of shopping vouchers to buy festive items.
The BT BAF makes the arts accessible to children and youths from financially disadvantaged backgrounds and provides them with opportunities to discover their talents.
According to its website, “more than 16,000 have benefited from a variety of arts programmes supported by BT BAF since its inception in 2004.”
“BT BAF beneficiaries gain exposure to the arts through workshops and structured lessons in Music, Dance, Theatre and Visual Arts at The Little Arts Academy and 10 Square Youth.”
On the other hand, the MEF sets its focus on building a society where people with disabilities are recognised for their abilities and lead full and socially integrated lives.
The MEF continues to serve persons with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, physical impairment, hearing impairment and visual impairment. According to its website, Mediacorp and SG Enable have worked together to support close to 8,000 beneficiaries as of November 2018.
SG Enable is an agency dedicated to enabling individuals with disabilities and is the fund administrator.
All these good intentions are borne out of the One FairPrice Family Programme, an initiative to give all FairPrice management and corporate employees a chance to get into operational activities for inter-departmental integration. Corporate employees based at FairPrice Headquarters number 800 while FairPrice has a 10,000-strong workforce.
Management and corporate staff dedicate a minimum of three days every year to support the retailer’s key operational functions, which also alleviates the manpower shortage during the festive period. Tasks include attending to customers, replenishing goods, retrieving trolleys and selling mandarin oranges.
With an eye on doing good for the community, NTUC FairPrice launched FairPrice Foundation in 2008 with a focus on the poor and needy, nation building and community bonding, and advancing workers’ welfare. To date, FairPrice has donated about $130 million to the Foundation to further these areas of focus.
