Though unemployed, a number of teenagers have a good amount of money at their disposal. With Video games, chocolates, branded sneakers and other a million things available to spend it on, their money soon finds its way out of their pockets. However for 15-year-old Maithreya Sitaraman the case is different. A 10th grade student in Bangalore International School, Maithreya collects his pocket money and contributes it voluntarily to the Akshaya Patra Foundation, the world’s largest NGO-run school mid day meal programme.

“Akshaya Patra has indeed helped us,” says Vasantha Kumari. According to this Head Mistress of Maharani Girls’ High School, things have changed drastically for most of the teachers and children that she works with. Before Akshaya Patra, it was the teachers of the school, including Vasantha Kumari, who were given the onus of ensuring lunch was provided on time. “We could not concentrate on teaching as much as we would have liked,” she says. However the timely arrival of Akshaya Patra’s meals has helped greatly; the teachers now have more time to focus on their work.

After a long telephonic conversation about Akshaya Patra, Rajeev (Assistant Manager – Tele Collection) managed to get an appointment from Mrs. Reddy (name changed) a Headmistress of a Primary school. Rajeev was trying to schedule the appointment in the second half of the day as the place was quite far away, but she told in an uncompromising voice “be in my office sharp at 9 o’ clock.”