Mobile grocery truck scheme set to help 7,200 vulnerable families

Armed with a foldable shopping trolley, Choa Chu Kang resident Suratemin Ali, 72, joined 100 other residents on the morning of April 27 to pick out groceries and household items like bread, canned sardines and cooking oil from a retrofitted truck.

- Anjali Raguraman

The mobile grocery truck, which is part of a newly launched programme called Mobile Groceries @ South West, was parked at Block 236 Choa Chu Kang Central and stacked high with 19 types of grocery and household items. The residents from vulnerable families chose items totalling up to $40 per household based on their needs.

Items were packed and handed out by about 40 student volunteers from Hwa Chong Institution and Lianhua Primary School.

The truck is part of a small fleet that will eventually rove around the South West District, which comprises 18 divisions, and provide 7,200 vulnerable families with around $300,000 worth of groceries and essential items over a twoyear period.

This is to help the families defray their daily expenses and cope with the cost of living.

Three distribution activities will be held per month under the programme a partnership between the South West Community Development Council (CDC) and charity Hao Ren Hao Shi.