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| Akshaya Patra Foundation To Hold One Million Mark Celebration In October |
Kathleen Cosgrove
09/15/2009
Benefit event will recognize the organization reaching its first milestone one year early
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an organization with the vision that no
child shall be deprived of education because of hunger, will hold a One
Million Mark Celebration on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 5 p.m. at the
Marriott Hotel in Burlington, Massachusetts. The benefit event will
recognize the organization reaching its first milestone of feeding one
million children daily ahead of schedule. Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande,
PhD, Akshaya Patra USA's board chair and chairman of The Sparta Group
LLC, will deliver the keynote address.
The event will celebrate Akshaya Patra's unique and innovative program
for fighting hunger and promoting education simultaneously for children
in over 5,700 government-run schools in seven states in India. It will
be attended by key community leaders, business executives and change
agents committed to closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
"Our annual benefit is a celebration of Akshaya Patra's commitment to
end childhood hunger and give every child the opportunity to excel. We
rejoice in attaining our first milestone of feeding one million
children daily, but cannot stop here," said Madhu Sridhar, Akshaya
Patra USA's President and CEO. "We need to sustain our commitment to
these deserving children and expand our efforts to feed 5 million
children by 2020."
Individual tickets cost $140 and can be purchased online at www.foodforeducation.org. To purchase tickets or for more information please contact Akshaya Patra at tapf.info@akshayapatrausa.org or 781-438-3090.
Akshaya Patra will also hold its third annual fundraising walk on
Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. The 5-mile walk starts and ends
at Artesani Park, 1234 Soldiers Field Road, Brighton, Massachusetts.
People can register for the walk for free at www.firstgiving.com/
About Akshaya Patra
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the world's largest NGO-run midday meal program, feeding over one million children each day in over 5,700 schools through 17 kitchens in seven states in India. A public-private partnership, Akshaya Patra 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 school year. With an average government subsidy of 50 percent, $28 feeds two children. This meal gives these children 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.
Akshaya Patra's kitchens are specially designed by engineers to leverage technology. The organization also sources its food stocks from local markets, thereby reducing 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 can be accomplished when the public sector, private sector and the civic society collaborate-- a cost effective, scalable solution with high quality service delivery. After reaching its goal of feeding one million children each school day, Akshaya Patra's next milestone is to serve 5 million children daily by 2020. For more information, please visit www.foodforeducation.org.
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