Akshaya Patra Launches Miami Chapter
We are excited to inform you that despite the challenges from the COVID-19 shelter-in-place, AkshayaPatra has successfully launched a Miami and South Florida chapter this year.
Miami South Florida now supports the world’s largest mid-day meal program.
AkshayaPatra is the world’s largest mid-day meal program providing hot, nutritious, school lunches every school day to over 1.8 million children in 16,856 schools, across 13 States and 1 Union Territory in India.
We help a child’s parents choose school over work.
In India, parents living in poverty make the difficult choice of sending their children to work to feed their family rather than getting an education. The mission of AkshayaPatra is that no child should miss the opportunity for an education because of hunger. Parents are motivated to send their child to school for the hot nutritious lunch served by AkshayaPatra. In many cases, this is their only meal of the day. The real benefit of the hot lunch is the resulting education, which helps the child stand on their feet and become a contributing member to society.
Why join AkshayaPatra?
Unlike many, we are an NGO running at scale feeding 1.8 million children at a cost of 18 cents/meal or $20 for a whole school year. AkshayaPatra is run in partnership with central and state governments, which fund 60% of the total cost of the meal from their mid-day meal program. AkshayaPatra is supported by a large group of successful entrepreneurs, many of whom have applied technology to create automated kitchens that prepare 250,000 meals in hours, and transport these in custom trucks to each school. This has been written up as a case study in Harvard Business Review as a model for ending child hunger.
AkshayaPatra also provides an opportunity for your school-aged children to become involved as youth ambassadors, learning about the challenges faced by children their age while earning volunteering hours. Your family also has an opportunity to visit a school in India and see the benefits first hand.
Join the cause and feed a child.
Join us for the Florida Virtual Gala on Saturday, September 19, 2020, at 11:30 am with film star Raveena Tandon and business leaders Jamshedji Godrej and Srivatsan Rajan. Watch an inspiring video at https://vimeo.com/365821791 to learn more about AkshayaPatra or visit https://foodforeducation.org.
If you would like to learn more or to join us in expanding our reach, send us an email at apsfchapter@gmail.com. There are over 100 million children in India living in poverty; so much needs to be done despite the success and scale we have achieved.
For more information, contact Meena Rajgopal (978-760-1541), Kavitha Kanuri (908-239-1779), and/or Venkat Maddineni (954-415-3849).
