Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal program is an incentive for children to continue their education. Akshaya Patra is feeding over 5 lakh children in Karnataka in five locations-Bangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Bellary, Mysore and Mangalore.The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the largest non-profit organisation in the world to implement the school meal program.
Akshaya Patra's mid-day meal program
Close to 13.5 million underprivileged children in India are out of school and into child labor in order to earn a single meal in a day. Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal program helps underprivileged children by providing them with a healthy, balanced meal that they would otherwise have to work for.
Akshaya Patra Foundation started Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal program from the inspiration of A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who saw a group of children fighting with street dogs over scraps of food and the incident led Swami to determination that no one within a ten mile radius of their center should go hungry. With that vision Akshaya Patra Foundation started Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal program in Bangalore by feeding 1500 children in 5 schools.Now the Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal program expanded to 18 locations across 8 states in India to feed over 1.2 million children.
The vision of Akshaya Patra Foundation is that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.” The Akshay Patra Foundation is a wonderful organization and govt has offered its support by granting 100% tax benefits to the donors.
The Mid-day Meal program is conducted in the Private-Public Partnership model within the guidelines of the government.There are many other NGOs providing mid-day meals in the country but Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal program not only provide children with much needed nutrition, but also encourage them in their education. For ten years Akshaya Patra has worked to provide underprivileged children in India. Now Akshaya Patra Foundation targets to serve 5 million (50 lakh) children by 2020.
Many of Akshaya Patra’s donors also sponsor a child on a regular basis either monthly, quarterly or annually. A contribution of just Rs. 525 will help to feed a child for a year. Akshaya Patra Foundation has also started their online donation program where people can contribute their donations online.
- click here for online donation
- click to know more about Akshaya Patra Foundation
A blog by Rakesh HP 