We recently hosted ‘A Wall of Hope and Joy – 2015’ our annual photography exhibition from 24th to 26th January in Bangalore! The exhibition which was hosted at Mantri Square Mall was a huge success, with crowds of shoppers streaming in to take a peek at the beautiful photographs up for display, as well as local TV channels and newspapers. The event was inaugurated by Praveen Methil, Head of Mantri Square, and Shridhama Krishna Dasa from ISKCON.

The exhibition showcased different kinds of images. It featured:

• Images exemplifying Akshaya Patra’s work in providing the mid-say meal programme and its operations processes
• A thematically designed display of images showcasing the experiences and emotions of childhood. The themes were ‘A belly full of fun’, ‘Moments under a hopeful sky’, ‘Chasing dreams’, ‘As you like it’ and ‘Feeding 1.4 million children. Every day.’
• The top 50 images from Click a Smile 2014, Akshaya Patra’s annual photography competition. This contest was a resounding success with almost 1,500 photographs from nearly 50 countries worldwide being entered.
• Akshaya Patra images from famous photographer Vicky Roy

The exhibition which was on from 11am to 8pm on all three days was a stunning visual representation of Akshaya Patra’s aim to eliminate classroom hunger, and its mission to feed 5 million children by 2020.

The exhibition served to educate the visitors on the need to provide food for education, and also remind them of the glorious times of childhood. It helped convey the message that childhood is a time of hope and joy, something millions of children in India are denied.

Through these inspiring, evocative images Akshaya Patra hopes to have touched the noble heart of the public, and sparked the flames of change for the future.

Visit the Wall of Hope and Joy 2015 photo gallery here.

At the end of our #BlogToFeedAChild contest with BlogAdda we are thrilled to have received such a huge and enthusiastic response from the blogging community. We have read each of your fabulous entries and been moved, inspired and wowed over and over again. Thank you for each post you submitted and your commitment to help us eliminate classroom hunger in India.

Here are excerpts from our top picks of the competition. Click on the links below the excerpts to read the complete post.

The problem I have mentioned above (under nutrition) is of gigantic proportion which needs continuous focus from the government at the centre and state level and will need a long term plan. It needs meticulous planning which I am sure we will do. It will also involve executing the plan right at the grass-root level including compulsory education to new parents about what foods to give at what age and the frequency etc. What I will touch upon, in this post, is a problem within a problem – feeding school going children thereby feeding our future. Children need to study, they need to be educated for India to enter into an even better future. The child can be from a poor household or from a wealthy family, they all need education. Basic access to meal should hardly be a barrier between their present and a fulfilling future!

Feed a child. Feed our future.. – Binu Thomas

The day without lunch turns your world upside down. Imagine that happening to kids aged below 10 years every day in school! Attending schools is a hard task in itself for most but having to do it on an empty stomach can be killing. And yet we expect our country to be 100% literate. There are 2 aspects to this. As you know most of the time the reason given by the parents who don’t send their children to school is “how will we feed them if they don’t work along with us.” The second one being that even if they send a hungry child to school who cannot concentrate in class & thinks of only food then what good would it do to the parents, the child or the system?

Food For Thought! – Ryan Fernandes

It’s high time we change the “It happens in India” attitude to “It won’t happen again in India.” Just like our great freedom fighters took matters in their hand, won freedom and shaped our country, we, each one of us can also do simple to big roles possible to erase the blots on our country… Let us all be the candle that don’t mind to burn itself to blow away darkness and bring a ray of light and hope. Imagine that feeling when a hungry/helpless child smiled and the reason behind that happiness is YOU.

Blog to Feed a Child – My Fifth Post – Manjusha Prave

This school with its practice of providing free education and free food has consequently provided our family with 1 banker, 1 teacher, 1 NASA engineer and 4 highly successful doctors. I will not say that my uncles and aunt studied so that they could eat. No. They knew that education was their only ticket out. But I am sure that the commitment they have to education and the respect they have for their parents, country and its traditions has to do a lot with the school that fed not only their hungry minds but also their hungry stomachs.

Today I blog to feed to a child – Sampoorna Satheesha

Every night 20 crore Indians sleep empty stomach, making it to 212 million undernourished people with higher percentage of children in it. Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8 percent in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50 percent of Indian children underweight and more than 70 percent of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies as anaemia.

Blog to Feed a Child – Novembers Child