The Food-for-Education program of Akshaya Patra has received a new boost with a generous $441,264 grant from the Caterpillar Foundation to support Akshaya Patra’s school feeding program and the centralized kitchens in India. This is the second year Akshaya Patra is receiving a grant from the Caterpillar Foundation.

This Caterpillar grant will be used to fund a briquette boiler for the kitchen in Gauwhati, Assam. As part of its efforts to institute environmentally friendly practices in all its operations, Akshaya Patra is replacing its diesel-fueled boilers with briquette boilers. The briquettes are made of groundnut husk or rice bran and will not leave a carbon footprint. The funds will also be used for six oil tanks to store more than 2,000 gallons of oil at each of the six centralized kitchens in Bellary, Hubli, Baroda, Gandhinagar, Bangalore and Vrindavan. In addition to the two-ton steam boiler and the six oil tanks, the funds will be used to purchase kitchen equipment for midday meal preparation for 46,000 children in 434 schools at Puri in Orissa.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal programs. 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 Akshaya Patra only $15 to feed a child for an entire year. 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. The organization also sources its food stocks from local markets, thereby reducing costs associated with transportation and food spoilage while supporting the local economy. After reaching its initial goal of feeding one million children each school day, Akshaya Patra’s next milestone is to serve five million children daily by 2020.

“Caterpillar is proud to support this important project to help school children in need of proper nourishment,” said Ganesh R. Iyer, general manager of Caterpillar India-Hosur. “By taking care of the hunger, we are fueling the bodies and minds of the children.”

Caterpillar Foundation’s vision is a world in which all people's basic requirements - such as shelter, clean water, sanitation and reliable power - are fulfilled in a way that sustains our environment. Caterpillar plays an active role in many sustainability-focused initiatives and partners with like-minded organizations throughout the world to embrace the challenges and engage in the pursuit of bold business goals. Founded in 1952, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more than $500 million to help make sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs.

“Akshaya Patra applauds the efforts of the Caterpillar Foundation to support programs addressing critical human needs, access to education, and economic empowerment in underserved communities. We are delighted to forge this partnership and assume collective responsibility to provide and help those in need”, stated Madhu Sridhar, President and CEO of Akshaya Patra USA.

For more information on Akshaya Patra please visit foodforeducation.org.

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