With some families facing financial challenges such as an unexpected loss of income due to the COVID-19 situation, some students required additional support for their daily meals.
In response, Recess@Home was started as a ground-up partnership between the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) and community donors. The programme provided meal subsidies for students during full Home-Based Learning (HBL) from 8 April to 4 May 2020.
The subsidies were disbursed via top-ups to the students’ School Smartcard which students could use to purchase food and essential groceries at some hawker centres, food courts, minimarts, convenience stores and supermarkets.
With the school holidays brought forward to May due to the extension of the Circuit Breaker (CB) period till 1 June 2020, Recess@Home continued to support students with CFS committing up to $300,000 in funding to extend the programme until 1 June.
To date, Recess@Home has supported around 27,000 students in primary, secondary, junior college and special education schools, with about $650,000 in funding raised by the Sayang Sayang Fund during the full HBL period.
Director of MOE’s UPLIFT (Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce) Programme Office, Mr Lim Yu Kee says, “The Sayang Sayang Fund is an inspiring example of a ground-up partnership showcasing how the Government and the community can work together to provide support for those in need. MOE appreciates CFS stepping forward to help our students, and we look forward to this continued partnership.”
