Akshaya Patra Foundation

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an independent charitable trust registered under the Indian Trusts Act 1882 (Reg. No. 154). Headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, the NGO serves as the implementing partner of the Government of India’s flagship PM POSHAN Abhiyaan, a school meal programme designed to improve the nutritional status of school-aged children nationwide. It was earlier known as the ‘National Programme for Mid-Day Meal in Schools’, popularly known as the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme.

Akshaya Patra is the largest NGO partner of the Government of India to implement the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan in government-run schools in India, a collaboration based on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. It is also one of the largest NGO-run school feeding programmes in the world.

Since its inception, Akshaya Patra has cumulatively served over 4 billion meals. The milestone serving of the 4 billionth meal was commemorated at an event held at the UN Headquarters in New York, United States.

History

Akshaya Patra was started in 2000 by feeding 1,500 children in five schools in Bengaluru, Karnataka, with the vision that no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger. The objective was to address the issue of classroom hunger and support the health and education of the children by providing them with hot, nutritious, and tasty mid-day meals.

When the Government of India’s flagship programme, the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme (now known as the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan) was launched in 2001, Akshaya Patra collaborated with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, and state governments to implement it.

Currently, Akshaya Patra feeds over 2.25 million beneficiaries in 78 locations across 16 states and 3 UTs of India.