CSR: BillDesk partners with The Akshaya Patra Foundation in COVID-19 Relief Feeding Efforts

MUMBAI: BillDesk has donated over Rs. 2 crores towards Akshaya Patra’s relief feeding initiative, enabling the Foundation to serve over 3.27 lakh cooked meals to vulnerable populations and distribute 10,220 Family Happiness Kits—amounting to over 12 lakh meal servings) pan India.

With the country grappling with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Akshaya Patra has scaled up its relief feeding efforts to serve cooked meals and distribute food relief kits to vulnerable communities. Employees of the renowned online payment gateway company, BillDesk volunteered at The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s COVID-19 relief feeding centres in Chanakyapuri and Sarojini Nagar in Delhi on 17 July, 2021. With the continued support of the Government and donors, the Foundation is reaching out to daily wage earners, migrant labourers, rough sleepers, etc., to ensure their food and nutrition security in these difficult times.

M N Srinivasu an IIM A graduate who cofounded BillDesk a home-grown pioneer in fintech sector, says: “As a part of our CSR activity at BillDesk, hunger eradication initiatives have been an area of key focus.  We have partnered with Akshay Patra for many years now on such initiatives and are very glad with the work and the actual implementation they do at the grass root level. We are grateful for the opportunity we have been blessed with, to give back to the society and to the nation”.

Speaking about the volunteering efforts, Sundeep Talwar, CMO – The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said, “We are immensely grateful to BillDesk for their wholehearted support to our food relief efforts in Delhi through this volunteering initiative. We have always believed that we need to work together and serve the people in need. We are fortunate that BillDesk and Akshaya Patra are on the same page on this aspect. They have been supporting our school feeding programme, enabling us to serve nutritious mid-day meals to thousands of children in various parts of the country. Today, they are supporting our food relief initiative, enabling us to feed thousands of people from vulnerable communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are happy to have BillDesk as our partner and confident that this collaboration will continue to serve children and communities in the years to come.”

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BillDesk has been among the eminent partners of Akshaya Patra since FY 2016-17 and has so far contributed over towards various feeding initiatives across India. In FY 18-19, they supported the feeding of 10,782 children in Rourkela and 4,094 children in Puri, Odisha. In FY 19-20, they donated eight food delivery vehicles to the Foundation’s unit in Silvassa, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and supported the feeding of over 10,000 kids.

As of 30 June, 2021, Akshaya Patra under its Covid Relief Feeding Program has cumulatively served over 14.55 crore meals to vulnerable populations across 19 states and one UT. These include 7.05 crore cooked meals, 12.09 lakh food relief kits with essential groceries for 42/28 meal servings, 12.21 lakh Happiness Kits for MDM beneficiaries with dry ration for 20 meal servings, hygiene products and educational supplies, and 5,444 Family Happiness Kits with dry ration for 120 meals, notebooks for children, sanitary pads for girls and a COVID Awareness Booklet.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that strives to address classroom hunger and malnutrition in India. By implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Government and Government-aided schools, Akshaya Patra aims to fight hunger and, at the same time, bring children to school. Since 2000, Akshaya Patra has worked towards reaching out to children with wholesome food 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 to becoming the world’s largest (not-for-profit run) mid-day meal programme, serving wholesome food to over 1.8 million children from 19,039 schools across 13 states and one union territory in India.