The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an organization with the vision that no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger, will hold a Food For Education Benefit Event on Sunday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Westin Waltham Hotel in Waltham, MA.  Deepak Chopra, MD, a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body healing, a best-selling author, and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, will deliver the keynote address.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal programs, feeding 1.2 million children each day in 7,000 schools through 19 kitchens in eight 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.

Heralded by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century and the "poet-prophet of alternative medicine," Dr. Chopra is also the host of the popular weekly Wellness Radio program on Sirius/XM Stars. A global force in the field of human empowerment, Dr. Chopra is the prolific author of more than fifty-five books, including fourteen bestsellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality, and peace. Dr. Chopra's books have been published in more than eighty-five languages. His New York Times bestseller Peace Is the Way won a prestigious Quill Award, and The Book of Secrets was awarded the grand prize at the 2005 Nautilus Book Awards. He is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post On Faith and contributes regularly to Intent.com and the Huffington Post.

“This event will bring together key community leaders, business executives and change agents who believe that empowering children with nutrition and education will help them become productive citizens of the world, boost the global economy and build a safer, more just world,” said Madhu Sridhar, Akshaya Patra USA’s president and CEO. “This event will also be an opportunity to honor and pay tribute to Dr. Deepak Chopra, the world’s authority on alternative medicine, and a philosopher and humanitarian that who has inspired people around the globe.”

Akshaya Patra is currently seeking corporate sponsors for the event. Individual tickets cost $140 and can be purchased on the Akshaya Patra website. For more information, please call Akshaya Patra at (781) 438-3090 or visit www.foodforeducation.org. All of the money raised at this event will fund Akshaya Patra’s midday school meal program in India.

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