Akshaya Patra Partners with the Greater Chennai Corporation for the Breakfast Program

Chennai, India, March 01, 2019 --(PR.com)-- The Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri Banwarilal Purohit inaugurated the Kaalai Unavu Thittam — a breakfast program for 1000 school children, jointly run by the Akshaya Patra Foundation in partnership with the Greater Chennai Corporation, today at the Chennai Higher Secondary School in Thiruvanmiyur,
The Kaalai Unavu Thittam will be expanded to cover 5,000 children in schools run by the Greater Chennai Corporation in the next 2 months and 20,000 children from the coming academic year.

When the Akshaya Patra Foundation came to Raj Bhavan and expressed a desire to play a role in the midday meal program in Tamil Nadu, it was suggested to them by Thiru. R. Rajagopal, |.A.S., Additional Chief Secretary to Governor that, since the state has already a well-run noon meals program, they should implement a program of providing breakfast so that the children will be well-fed before the start of classes. It was this suggestion that has resulted in today's partnership of Akshaya Patra Foundation with the Greater Chennai Corporation.

To begin with, the menu would comprise of south Indian dishes such as Upma or Idli or Pongal served with Sambar on each day of school. The Akshaya Patra Foundation will cook the breakfast and deliver it to the schools free of cost and the school will serve the same to the students in the morning before the start of classes.

The Hon'ble Governor was joined by the Hon'ble Minister for Fisheries, Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Thiru. D. Jayakumar and Hon'ble Minister for Social Welfare and Nutritious Noon Meal Program Dr.Saroja in launching the program.

Other dignitaries who were present were Thiru. R. Rajagopal, I.A.S., Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor, Thiru. Harmander Singh, I.A.S; Secretary, Municipal Adminitration and Water Supply and Thiru. G. Prakash, Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation. Shri Chanchalapathi Dasa — Vice-Chairman, Shri Shridhar Venkat, Chief Executive Officer and other members and volunteers of the Akshaya Patra Foundation were also present at the event.

Chanchalapthi Dasa, Vice Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation said, “It is well established by a lot of research today that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Tamil Nadu has been the pioneer of school feeding with cooked meal in our country. Tamil Nadu’s midday meal program has been the example and inspiration for Akshaya Patra too when we began the program in Bengaluru in the year 2000. Now, Tamil Nadu will also be a pioneer in the breakfast program in the country. We hope, some day in the future, the whole country emulates the example of Tamil Nadu in the breakfast program.”

About The Akshaya Patra Foundation
Akshaya Patra is a not-for-profit organisation, which strives to address classroom hunger and bring children to school by implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Government and Government-aided schools. The vision of the Akshaya Patra Foundation: No child in India should be deprived of education due to hunger. Since 2000, the Foundation has worked towards reaching more children with wholesome food on every single school day. The Foundation is continuously leveraging technology to cater to millions of children. Its state-of-the-art kitchens have become a subject of study and attract curious visitors from around the world.

In partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments, and the inestimable support of many philanthropic donors and well-wishers, Akshaya Patra has grown from humble beginnings serving just 1,500 school children across five schools. Today, Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Program is the world’s largest (not-for-profit run) school lunch program, serving wholesome food to over 1.76 million children from 14,702 schools across 12 states in India.

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