“No child shall be deprived of education because of hunger” – with this vision Madhu Pandit Dasa started the Akshaya Patra Foundation in Bangalore in the year 2000.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 09, 2010 – The Akshaya Patra program is a living proof of the fact that hunger and education are critically related issues. A wholesome tasty hot meal can go a long way in overcoming issues of school drop outs and child marriage. Madhu Pandit Dasa the Chairman of The Akshaya Patra says that it is impossible to make a child go to school and learn the lessons if they are hungry. He firmly believes that we can fight poverty with education.
“No child shall be deprived of education because of hunger” – with this vision Madhu Pandit Dasa started the Akshaya Patra Foundation in Bangalore in the year 2000. Currently the organization has expanded itself to 8 states and 18 locations reaching out even the remotest corners of India like Baran (Rajasthan), Nayagarh (Orissa) of India, feeding 1.2 million children every day. The largest centre is located in Hubli-Dharwad. The kitchen floor is 45,000 sq ft. in area. The mid day meal is mainly supported by the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, Sudha Murthy and Gururaj Deshpande and Jaishree Deshpande of the Deshpande Foundation.
The organization always respects the local preferences of the people while catering the food. For instance, in North India the organization is equipped with the machines which can cook up to 10,000 chapatis in an hour. At the same time the kitchens of the South can make enough samber filled with vegetables for 6000 children in two hours. Madhu Pandit Dasa says that “eating together means a lot; it is much more than sharing the meal”. In the north where caste system is quite prominent, Akshaya Patra Foundation through its school meal program in government school brings together all the children from different strata. They children sit together and the food is served by the teachers who also eat with the kids. This develops a sense of equality among the children.
Akshaya Patra’s mid day meal program has been creating ripple in the corporate world too. The foundation was also used as a case study for the Harvard Business School as a model of excellence.
The Foundation has been visited and appreciated by many eminent personalities like former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Smti. Pratibha Patil, ( President of India), Smti. Sudha Murthy, K. Kasturirangan (Former Chairman, ISRO, Bangalore), Amitabh Bachan, Amir Khan, S. Venkateshwaran (Director, Bits Pilani), and many more.
In these 10 years of the life of Akshaya Patra, Madhu Pandit Dasa has bagged many award and accolades for its contribution towards the society. Today it moves ahead with an ambitious aim of reaching out to 5 million children by 2020.
Speak Your Mind