The awards were adjudged by a jury of luminaries consisting of Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Mr. Deepak Parekh, Mr. R. Seshasayee, Mr. Jagdish Khattar and Mr. Raghav Bahl. The event brought together the most revered names in India's political, economic and social circles.

Akshaya Patra has won accolades from all corners for its yeomen work for the mid-day meal program in India and their astounding performance in feeding nearly one million (ten lakh) school children every day.

Dignitaries who were present for the award ceremony included Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra, Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, Gujarat, Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industries, Aamir Khan, Atul Punj, S. Ramadorai, Uday Kotak, Ajay Piramal, Naresh Goyal, Chitra Ramakrishnan, Anand G. Mahindra, Sumit Bannerjee, Swati Piramal and Nita Ambani.

Shri. Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, received the award and said, “This award is actually a recognition of thousands of supporters from the corporate world, professional governance provided by my co-trustees, board of advisors, support of the state and central government, thousands of Akshaya Patra staff and dedicated missionary workers, to bring a smile on the faces of the underprivileged children of our country and to empower them with education.”

“We have been following the best practices of the corporate world in terms of transparency and governance which we believe is essential to conduct the program on such a grand scale. We also thank God for making us instruments in this great service and pray that we will be able to extend this service to lakhs of more children to support them with good education.”

MORE ABOUT AKSHAYA PATRA Unlimited Food for Education. (NATIONAL LEVEL SCHOOL MEAL PROGRAMME)

According to a UNESCO report, around 13.5 million children in the age group of 6-13 years are out of school in India. Despite the trillion-dollar economic growth, a large chunk of India’s younger generation does not have access to schools because of poverty and malnutrition.

To facilitate the education of needy children, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, provides unlimited noon meals in schools in partnership with the Central and respective state governments of India. Currently the program is feeding 9,73,147 children in over 5,700 government, government aided schools and anganwadis (day care centers) in 16 locations across India on any given day.

They are Bangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Bellary, Mangalore and Mysore in Karnataka, Jaipur, Nathdwara and Baran in Rajasthan, Vrindavan and Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, Puri and Nayagarh in Orissa, Gandhinagar and Ahemedabad in Gujarat and Hyderabad and Visakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

This is the largest NGO run school meal program in the world. For details log on to www.akshayapatra.org

What makes Akshaya Patra unique?

• The Akshaya Patra program uses centralized, automated kitchens for cooking food which is then distributed to schools through special purpose vehicles.
• Akshaya Patra’s kitchens can cook about 100,000 meals in less than five hours with least human intervention and sustained quality.
• A three item menu is served to children as per the recommendations of qualified nutritionists.
• Due to extensive mechanization of the kitchen, the program is able to offer children standardized, high quality, hygienic meals. The program also offers education and health interventions for holistic child development.
• Akshaya Patra is a secular, not-for-profit program implemented only in government schools where there is no discrimination whatsoever.
• The program is independently governed by a Board of Trustees & audited by KPMG.
• A study in the year 2006 by AC Nielsen Org Marg Pvt Ltd, has vouchsafed for the efficacy of the program in increasing attendance and enrolment in schools, improving nutritional status of these children, enhancing their learning abilities and reducing drop out rates.
• Akshaya Patra program is run with part subsidies from the government, besides financial support from corporates and individual philanthropists.
• All contributions to The Akshaya Patra Foundation are eligible for 100% tax deduction under section 35AC/80GGA (bb) of the Income Tax Act 1961 in India.
• With a vision to ensure that no child in India is deprived of education because of hunger, the Akshaya Patra Foundation is striving to end hunger and create a human resources pool that will propel India into the league of developed nations.

*Education for ALL Global Monitoring Report 2007, UNESCO