(Akshaya Patra benefit event with Indra Nooyi will be held on May 14th at the InterContinental, 510 Atlantic Avenue, Boston at 5:30 pm)

The Akshaya Patra Foundation USA ( www.foodforeducation.org), a Massachusetts based organization with the vision that no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger, has placed in the top 100 of the Chase Community Giving Facebook Challenge. Chase launched an innovative giving program for small and local charities.  The first round of this campaign ended on May 5.  Akshaya Patra, ranked 29th in the first round, will receive $25K and is gearing up for the second round.  The monies from the first round will allow the Foundation to feed 2,173 children for an entire year.

“We are delighted that so many people participated in the first round and supported the Akshaya Patra children.   Hunger is a hidden problem that over 50 million children are battling silently in India. Child hunger impedes their ability to learn. Investments in child nutrition are investments in economic development and not just a welfare measure. We look forward to finishing at the top for the second round.” Said Madhu Sridhar, President and CEO of AP USA.

During Round 2, which begins May 19 and ends May 25th, the top eligible charity receives $500,000 and the remaining 99 top charities earn $20,000 through $400,000 awards. More than $5 million dollars will be distributed to top vote getters. The spring 2011 round of the Chase Community Giving program is designed to benefit smaller and local charities. Through Chase Community Giving, participants are able to vote to determine which small and local nonprofits will receive donations from Chase’s philanthropy funds this spring.

About Akshaya Patra

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal programs. A public-private partnership, Akshaya Patra combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. It costs only $31 to feed a child for an entire year, and with government subsidy, it takes just $11.50. This meal gives these children an incentive to come to school, stay in school and provides them with the necessary nutrients they need to develop their cognitive abilities to focus on learning. These children are not in school because of economic necessities.

Started modestly in Bangalore feeding 1500 children in five schools, the foundation has grown to become the largest, and certainly most innovative, school lunch program in the world.  Akshaya Patra is a great example of what can be accomplished when the public sector, private sector and the civic society collaborate-- a cost effective, scalable solution with high quality service delivery. Akshaya Patra’s next milestone is to serve 5 million children daily by 2020.

President Obama in his congratulatory note to Akshaya Patra wrote, “Your use of efficient and innovative business practices to scale up in just a few years from feeding 1,500 school children daily to almost a million is a powerful demonstration of what's possible when people work together.”

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