Yagneshwara Dasa, Kandi Project Director, The Akshaya Patra Foundation; Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa, President, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Telangana & AP; Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation; Sudha Murty, Chairperson of The Infosys Foundation; T. Harish Rao, Minister for Irrigation, Marketing & Legislative Affairs of Telangana.
India CSR News Network
HYDERABAD: Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys has announced that it has partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation for the construction of a kitchen at Kandi area near Hyderabad to provide mid-day meals for government school children.
This initiative brings two key focus areas of the Foundation under one umbrella – improved access to education and eradication of hunger and malnutrition, thus enabling the Foundation’s work towards the larger goal of social transformation.
The Foundation is one of the biggest partners of Akshaya Patra, a non-profit organization providing mid-day meal to 1.7 million children in India every day. As part of its partnership, the Foundation will offer a grant of Rs 18 Crore towards the construction of an advanced technology kitchen.
The kitchen will provide mid-day meals to a daily estimate of 1 lakh government school children in the surrounding areas and will also cater to the needy Anganwadi children. Known as the ‘Akshaya Patra Foundation Kitchen Sponsored by Infosys Foundation’, the kitchen will possess state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure.
By combining good management with the application of innovative technology and smart engineering, Infosys Foundation and Akshaya Patra aim to enhance the food safety and hygiene factors of the kitchen. At this to-be constructed kitchen, the target is to reduce the footprint and cost of construction up to 20 per cent while ensuring a clean, dust-free environment via air-lock mechanism and to save water by almost 75 per cent with the help of rice washing machines.
Speaking about the initiative, Sudha Murty, Chairperson – Infosys Foundation said, “We are extremely fortunate to be associated with Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal scheme which is, without any doubt, a pioneering move to eradicate hunger among school going children in India. The positive impact of the scheme motivates us to enter into new phases with Akshaya Patra and continue our work towards freeing the society from classroom hunger and promoting universal access to education.”
“We thank the Government of Telangana for giving us the opportunity to bring in this biggest social investment to Telangana. This will bring a meaningful change in the lives of school children. We are honored to partner with The Infosys Foundation to build this mega kitchen. We look forward to advance the vision of Bangaru Telangana by providing mid-day meals to all the Government school children across the districts in the state. I also thank all the dignitaries whose unwavering support has been pivotal to The Foundation’s success,” said Shri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa, President, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh.
The foundation laying ceremony of the kitchen was organized at the site on December 7, 2016 in the presence of T. Harish Rao, Minister of Irrigation, Mining & Geology, Marketing & Legislative Affairs of Telangana, Dr. Sudha Murty, Chairperson – Infosys Foundation, Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman – The Akshaya Patra Foundation & President – ISKCON Bangalore and Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa, President, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh.
