11th November is always a special day for Akshaya Patra, for it was on this day 11 years ago, that the Foundation began to feed 1500 school children from 5 schools in Bangalore.
Akshaya Patra will now strengthen its capabilities and expand further to reach its mission to feed 5 million children in India by 2020. The Foundation has so far crossed 75 crore cumulative meals served (on 31st March 2011).
On reaching this milestone, on this momentous date of 11.11.11, which happens every 100 years, Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, Akshaya Patra Foundation, said “ As we complete 11 years feeding children, it’s fascinating to look back to that day of the year in 2000 when Akshaya Patra was born. We started a pilot project, feeding 1500 school children every day. In the space of two months, we had enough applications to feed 1,00,000 children in and around Bangalore city. All this was possible because of the unstinting support of all our stakeholders.”
Akshaya Patra currently feeds over 1.3 million children across 9 states in India. In the next financial year, Akshaya Patra will start its operations by opening centralized kitchens in Delhi and Bhubaneshwar.
Talking about the trade mark the Blue bus that carries hot nutritious meals to schools, Dasa added that in the coming years the Foundation expects to roll out more number of Blue buses that can reach more number of beneficiaries. The Foundation currently has 450 blue buses in their fleet.
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| 11 Years celebration of Akshaya Patra |
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| Children participating in Akshaya Patra's 11 years function |
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| Akshaya Patra 11 years celebration |
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| Duniya Rashmi and othere distributing sweets to children |
