SINGAPORE - Children from about 80 rental block households became "cereal killers" on Sunday morning (Jan 7), as they chomped on cereal for breakfast.

Along with their parents, they were also entertained with a magic show and attended an educational talk on nutrition.

The events were part of the launch of a programme by the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru (TPTB) Citizens' Consultative Committee in Tanjong Pagar GRC, to provide breakfast for the children.

The year-long programme - targeted at kids from three to 12 years old - is a collaboration between Kellogg Company (Asia Pacific), which provided the cereal, and philanthropic group Heartwarmers which supplied the milk.

It is also part of Kellogg's Breakfast for Better Days campaign to fight global hunger, and will see each household given 1kg of cereal and six 250ml packets of milk on the first Saturday of every month.

It is in its second year, having been rolled out in Whampoa last year.

Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Indranee Rajah, who is Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law and guest-of-honour at the event, stressed the importance of nutrition for children whose brains and bodies are still developing.

"We wanted to make sure that the children from low income backgrounds in our constituency do not miss out and that they too can get a nutritious start to their day," she said.

Mr Amit Banati, president of Kellogg Company (Asia Pacific), said that in a bustling place like Singapore, everyone is always rushing about. "You tend to compromise on breakfast and either skip it, or skimp on it."

Homemaker Nurain Ahmad, 33, was at the event with her daughter Nur Hazelynna bte Abdullah, 16, a student at Gan Eng Seng Secondary School.

"I sometimes prepare breakfast for her, consisting bread and milo, but she never eats," she said.

Hazelynna, the eldest of four siblings, said it is because she wakes up too early for school and is usually too sleepy to eat.