Back in 2000, our inspiration, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, caught sight of a group of children fighting with street dogs over scraps of food. This sight greatly agonised him and with this germinated a prolific idea, known today as The Akshaya Patra Foundation.
From this experience was born our vision that “no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”. This pledge translated into action, when in June 2000, Akshaya Patra served its first mid-day-meals to 1,500 children in five Government schools in Bengaluru.
Since then, 15 years have passed and today we are already serving mid-day meals to nearly 15 lakh school children from 10,845 schools across 10 states in India every single day. Our mission is to reach out to 5 million children by 2020 and we are only going to march ahead to make this happen!
The Foundation has witnessed exponential growth in its every sphere in the last 15 years. Strategic partnerships, constant innovation, planned expansions, enhancement and continuous support from our well-wishers have helped us achieve what we are today!
But the challenges looming are enormous and time is short. The struggle that our children face daily to procure food is overwhelming and reiterates how important it is to end classroom hunger once and for all.
As we celebrate our 15 year anniversary on 11 November, 2015 we would like to extend a warm thank you to all our supporters, donors, volunteers, team members and to every single person who has ever been a part of this journey.
Thank you for believing in us, and thank you for helping us make a difference.
We look forward to celebrating many more years of success with you all.
