The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an organization with the vision that no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger, recently welcomed two new development directors to their US operations.

Mala Umapathy joined in January as the Director of Corporate Development, and will oversee corporate and grant fundraising. Umapathy comes to Akshaya Patra with over 25 years of experience, spanning entrepreneurship, financial services, sales, marketing and consulting.  She has served on the board of many non-profit organizations and continues to volunteer with selected charitable organizations.  Umapathy received her MBA from Boston University.

“Akshaya Patra’s mission is an immense and gratifying opportunity to help millions of children who are our hope for the future,” said Umapathy. “Akshaya Patra takes a unique, innovative approach to midday meals and education, and the organization’s dedication and passion to the cause is what attracted me to the Foundation.”

Seema Joshi joined Akshaya Patra in December as the Director of Grassroots Development. In this role, Joshi will build grassroots support for the organization and provide leadership to current chapters and those in formation. Prior to joining the foundation, Joshi served as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society Brooklyn Office for the Aging.  She also held a Senior Legal Fellowship with The Polaris Project, a Washington D.C. based grassroots organization focused on fighting human trafficking. Joshi holds her JD from American University and a BA from Boston College.

“I choose to be responsible for the world around me, and in doing so I must act,” said Joshi.  “Akshaya Patra allows me to harness my talents and advocacy skills to positively affect the global community and make a difference starting with the children of India.”

Madhu Sridhar, President and CEO of Akshaya Patra USA, is building a team that will advance the mission of Akshaya Patra – no child shall be deprived of education in India because of hunger – by enhancing Akshaya Patra’s presence in the US.  “Mala and Seema are great additions to the Akshaya Patra team,” said Sridhar. “They will help raise funds for the programs in India by raising awareness of the twin challenges facing India today, hunger and access to education, and the proven track record, scalable solution and replicable model that Akshaya Patra has to offer.”

About Akshaya Patra

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal program and feeds over 966,000 underprivileged children daily in 5,600 schools in six states in India.  Akshaya Patra is a public-private partnership that combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. It costs $28 to feed a child daily for the entire year. For many of the children this is their only complete meal for the day. This gives them an incentive to come to school, stay in school and provides them with the necessary nutrients they need to develop their cognitive abilities to focus on learning.

Through kitchens specially designed by engineers to leverage technology and sourcing its food stocks from local markets, Akshaya Patra is able to reduce costs associated with transportation and food spoilage while supporting the local economy. In a short time, the foundation has grown to become the largest, and certainly most innovative, school lunch program in the world. Akshaya Patra is a great example of what a non-profit organization can achieve-- a cost effective, scalable solution with high quality service delivery. Akshaya Patra’s US office is located in Stoneham, MA. For more information please visit www.foodforeducation.org.

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