Ceremonial celebrations attended by the Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and several dignitaries of India.
Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi recently commemorated The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s serving of cumulative 3 billion meals at an event held at the organization’s campus in Vrindavan, Mathura.
The Prime Minister was joined by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Naik, and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath.
Madhu Pandit Dasa – Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation; Chanchalapathi Dasa – Vice-Chairman, Mohandas Pai – Independent Trustee, other trustees and officials, and Presidents of various regions were also present at the occasion.
PM unveiled the commemorative plaque to mark the serving of 3 Billionth meal by Akshaya Patra. He addressed the gathering and showed his support to the Foundation’s initiative by serving the ceremonial 3 Billionth meal. The Prime Minister, much to the delight of the children, even shared meals with them.
Madhu Pandit Dasa expressed his delight over having reached this milestone and conveyed his gratitude to all the stakeholders, including the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), State Governments, corporates, donors, partners, and the community at large, for their continued support. He also reiterated the commitment to serve hot, nutritious, safe, and tasty meals to children every school day and further added that the Foundation will strive to enhance the impact of mid-day meals through various innovative initiatives.
In 2012, Akshaya Patra reached its first major milestone of serving 1 billion cumulative meals since the inception of the program in 2000. By 2016, the organization had already served a cumulative 2 Billion meals.
Akshaya Patra is the world’s first NGO-run school meal program to achieve the milestone of serving 3 Billion cumulative meals. It is a major milestone in the Foundation’s pursuit of the mission to serve meals to 5 million children every school day by 2025.