To coincide with the race pack collection expo of the Income Eco Run, a Farmer’s Market had been held at the F1 Pit Building on the 14th and 15th of April. 

This Market is being held in the spirit of eco friendliness at the Income Eco Run, in order to give race participants the chance to learn about how to lead a more sustainable lifestyle and take the first steps towards conscious living. 

Said Marcus Chew, Chief Marketing Officer, Income, “The essence of the Income Eco Run is to continuously strive to journey towards Zero Waste. Building a sustainable environment depends greatly on the day to day actions of everyone. Utilising the race as a platform for change and education, Income Eco Run hopes to inspire even more commitment from the public to help Singapore become future ready.”

Income Eco Run takes place on the morning of Sunday 29th April and will flag off at the F1 Pit building. The race consists of a 21.1km category to appeal to serious runners, as well as a 10km and a 5km run, alongside a Kids Dash for the young ones to get them started on running at an early age.

I headed to the F1 Pit Building last Saturday to pick up my race pack for my 21.1km run. To my surprise, the process was seamless and fast and there was no queue at all. In fact, I was in and out of the counters within about five minutes. 

As well, I took the chance to have look at the Farmer’s Market and checked out the stalls available since I had been there anyway.

Promising to be bigger and better than last year’s edition, the Farmer’s Market consisted of different stalls selling various sustainable produce, food products and workshops.

I had thought that number of stalls were pretty similar to the previous year’s inaugural edition of the Farmer’s Market, but there were some slight changes in the actual stalls. Some of the booths that had turned up last year did not make a return. But there were some new stalls that I did not recognise.

Overall, there was still quite a wide range of stalls and these sold items relating to food produce, wholesome living and other areas of sustainable living. And in particular, there had been some stalls that had caught my attention at the marketplace. 

One of these was the Beans to Bar stall, which is an artisan chocolate brand. They have a wide range of dark chocolate to cater to various tastes and preferences. Amongst their products, my favourite was the Hazelnut Gianjuda Dark Chocolate. 

The hazelnuts were really tasty and added a delicious nutty flavour to the chocolate. As well, there was also a generous amount of hazelnuts in each chocolate bar, unlike some other nut chocolate that I have come across in the past.

Other flavours also include an Organic Dark Chocolate bar with Tahini and Roasted Sesame, and a 53% Dark Milk Chocolate with Cinnamon. 

Another stall that had caught my eye was Amazin’Graze, which produces healthy granolas and nuts. Their flavours are predominantly Asian, including Kaya Butter Granola, Miso Szechuan Nut Mix and Pandan Coconut Nut Mix. 

At the same time, despite being healthy, their granolas and nut mixes are definitely delicious and I enjoyed tasting a few varieties of the items that they had to offer, on the recommendation of the sales girl.  

Veganburg also had a booth at the Farmer’s Market. A vegetarian burger joint, they had a couple of burgers available, as well as a vegetarian hotdog and something that had been named Spinach Balls, which looked as though they had resembled potato croquettes with some spinach mixed inside. 

I was feeling a bit full so I did not buy anything from their stall, but I thought that their produce had looked quite interesting, so I am hoping to check out their shop, which is at Eunos someday.

For those who want something to drink though, Bettr Barista was also at the Farmer’s Market, selling a range of coffee and non caffeinated beverages. The hot chocolate had looked rather good.

Bettr Barista is much more than simply a coffee shop though; in fact, it is a social enterprise that offers top notch coffee and at the same time, provides employment for marginalised women and youths at risk. So by buying their coffee, you are also contributing to a good cause at the same time. So you can help to kill two birds with one stone. 

The Hunter’s Kitchenette, which produces a wide range of natural tree-nut butters and healthy nut snacks, was another stall that had made a return from the previous year. 

And some of the new stalls included Lieutenant Kennel which makes healthy, wholesome nut bars, including Cerana Honey which contains honey and honey based products, and the Edible Garden City, a business that champions the grow your own food movement in cities around the world beginning with Singapore. 

For the non food stalls, Freedom Cups was a stall that was making its debut at the Income Eco Run Farmers’ Market. This is a business that produces menstrual cups, which are small cups made of medical grade silicone that is inserted like a tampon and sits at the base of the cervix collecting menstrual fluid. 

I also did not recognise the Tzu Chi Foundation stall as this too, had been new. Founded just one year after the independence of Singapore, the Tzu Chi Foundation strives to live out the values of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and giving, to fulfil the three ambitions of Dharma Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi. 

The Tzu Chi Foundation also houses the Jing Si Books & Cafe stall, which offers a variety of Asian themed snacks and meals and they too had a booth at the expo. Their instant rice was particularly interesting – these are rice meals complete with flavours to be eaten on their own, and are simple to prepare, so they make quick and easy meals for busy office workers or housewives who have no time to cook.

Furthermore the rice meals are also quite tasty and I thought that they don’t actually taste like instant food – despite being as such. 

Besides the Farmer‘s Market, there are also running themed stalls at the expo and these include booths by New Balance and the RUN Singapore Magazine. 

So this means that runners can purchase last minute supplies such as shoes, energy gels or compression wear for their upcoming race too.

There were also talks throughout the day, given by a host of speakers on running and eco related topics such as improving running performance, planning a greener diet, making beeswax wrap as well as pre race prep and post race recovery.  

Unfortunately due to time constraints, I did not have the chance to attend any of these talks, but I do hope that runners who were there, had been able to benefit from these. 

These talks which are by the event’s partners and vendors, are held in the spirit of the green movement at Income Eco Run, and are meant to be a platform to inspire and support change in the community.

As well, Income last weekend had also joined thousands of runners in committing themselves to the climate action pledge launched by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. 

Said Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, “NTUC Income is setting a good example in the Year Of Climate Action. It is making a Climate Action SG pledge, taking responsibility to reduce waste generation and challenging participants of the Income Eco Run to do the same.” 

He continued “These efforts are important in building a sustainable future for Singapore and I urge more organisations to come on board.”

As well, in a bid to help Income further their commitment in building a sustainable environment, Strategic Green Advisor by the Singapore Environmental Council (SEC), will conduct a Green Event Assessment for Income Eco Run where key environmental factors such as carbon emissions, waste generated and recycled, water and electricity consumption will be analysed. 

Said Jen Teo, Executive Director of SEC, “The SEC is proud to partner with Income Eco Run. Our collaboration with NTUC Income is part of SEC’s efforts to work with organisations and the community to take climate action together. A growing number of Singaporeans want to behave more sustainable and reduce the waste and carbon footprint generated by their activities.”

This is also the first time that SEC will assess a mass sporting event, establishing a new benchmark for assessing future events that encourage people to play a part in creating a sustainable Singapore. 

Added Teo, “We would like to encourage the public to take part in activities like the Income Eco Run, that promote sustainable action.”