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India's Mid-day Meal Scheme

How can one small boy, herding cattle in a forgotten part of India, bring about monumental change in the country? The answer lies in the words he spoke.

When Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minster K. Kamaraj saw a boy near the town of Cheranmahadevi herding livestock he asked him,

“What are you doing with these cows? Why didn’t you go to school?”

The child immediately retorted, “If I go to school, will you give me food to eat? I can learn only if I eat."

Unknowingly, this young boy had touched on a critical problem facing the nation’s children: they cannot learn on a hungry stomach. His simple response sparked a series of events which gave rise to the Mid day Meal Scheme as it is known today. Started in the 1960s in Tamil Nadu, the programme was set up to reduce hunger and encourage universal primary education.

Akshaya Patra is an Indian NGO providing food for education to children in India. We began this initiative with the vision that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.”

It takes Rs. 750 to feed a child for a year!

The Akshaya Patra Foundation came into being in the year 2000 to address two of the most immediate challenges of India - hunger and education. The Foundation began its work by providing quality mid-day meals to 1500 children in 5 schools in Bangalore. With the vision of “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”, The Akshaya Patra Foundation strived to bring back children to school by giving them the incentive of hot, nutritious and unlimited mid day meal.

With the partnership of the Government of India & various State governments, as well as the generosity of thousands of our supporters, we have grown from a small endeavor to a mammoth force that stretches across the country.

Currently the Foundation feeds 1.4 million children everyday across 10 states and 23 locations of India.