Neighbourhood initiatives help tackle cost-of-living concerns

Punnets of cherry tomatoes, bundles of chye sim and vacuum-sealed salmon fillets – these are among the fresh food that residents of rental flats in Kampong Glam can pick up every Saturday from a market in Jalan Besar, for free.

- Esther Loi and Tang Yi Qing

The Love Connect Fresh Market, the brainchild of Jalan Besar Community Club, is one of more than 300 community-led initiatives started across Singapore in recent years to relieve cost-of-living pressures for more vulnerable households.

While the initiatives range from free spectacles in Kampong Chai Chee to subsidised traditional Chinese medicine in Radin Mas, most of them provide groceries to lower-income Singaporeans.

These are the ground-level counterparts to national programmes, such as CDC vouchers, that together help Singaporeans tackle the pressures of rising costs, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Jan 19.

At an event to launch a subsidised groceries scheme in his constituency of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, he promised further help in the Budget that he will deliver on Feb 18.

The Straits Times visited three such initiatives in January to see how they work.

FRESH PRODUCE EVERY SATURDAY

In 2022, the Love Connect Fresh Market was set up after the Jalan Besar Community Club management committee received feedback from residents that they needed fresh groceries to cook healthier meals for their families.

With assistance from partners such as Redmart by Lazada and Jamiyah Singapore, it launched its weekly market, which consists of 10 stalls at the community club offering a variety of food items.