In India, millions of school children, especially from lower-income groups, rely on meals provided to them from schools. They primarily come from the households of daily wagers and domestic workers, where the income is not enough to match the nutritional requirements of a growing child. In an attempt to fill the nutritional gap and attract more children to schools, India launched the mid-day meal programme.?
Over the years, the programme helmed by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, has not only provided nutritious food to millions of school children, but also worked towards making their meals better.
Akshaya Patra, an Indian nonprofit organisation, has raised $950,000 through a virtual event hosted by its Texas chapter in the US, to feed mid-day meals to school children in India.
The event, Virtual Gala - Technology for Change, was attended by over 1,000 businesses, non-profits, government officials and philanthropic leaders from around the world, supporting the organisation's dual mission of addressing childhood hunger and promoting education for underserved children in India, said a report by news agency PTI.
The Texas gala, hosted by the cities of Austin, Dallas and Houston, was held on July 25. The evening celebrated volunteers and chapter teams from Austin, Dallas, and Houston who continue to work towards alleviating classroom hunger.
The event included a conversation with Narayana Murthy, co-founder of software giant Infosys, by Siva Sivaram, president of Western Digital, who was recently appointed Chairman of Akshaya Patra Foundation USA, along with Vice Chairman Srivatsan Rajan. It also included a musical rendition by Carnatic musician Jayashri Ramnath.
Akshaya Patra is the world's largest (not-for-profit run) mid-day meal programme serving wholesome food every school day to over 1.8 million children from 19,039 schools across 12 states & 2 Union territories of India.
The Akshaya Patra foundation is run by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) and is headquartered in Bengaluru.