If you are Wondering what the Akshaya Patra Program is.
Akshaya Patra means an ''Inexhaustible vessel' from which unlimited food can be drawn.” The Akshaya Patra Foundation was started By ISKCON.

Every year, 2.5 million children die in India, accounting for one in five deaths in the world. More than half of these deaths could be prevented if children were well nourished. India's progress in reducing child malnutrition is very slow.

The proven path to helping the poor, is by educating them. Providing food works as an important factor that encourages education; this in turn enables overall development transforming lives and communities.

A hungry child cannot be expected to have an urge for education. We provide nutritious meals to about 1 million children - with a vision to encourage education amongst the poor.



Many impoverished children performed poorly in school due to short attention spans associated with extreme hunger. Other children either did not enroll in school, or dropped out at a young age choosing to seek work during the school day to earn money to feed themselves and their families.

Earlier, school meals was irregular and in many places non-existent. Responding to pressure from the people, the Supreme Court of India passed an order on November 28, 2001 which mandated: "Cooked midday meal is to be provided in all the government and government-aided primary schools in all the states."

Akshaya patra partakes this responsibility.

Thus evolved Akshaya Patra, a not-for-profit organization with a baseline "unlimited food for education". We started feeding children in June 2000. What started as a pilot project in five schools in Bangalore, for 1,500 children, has now grown into a mammoth endeavor reaching out to 993,147 children in 16 locations across six states.

Our mission is to feed one million underprivileged children by 2010.

Manjunath, a 10th grade student of a Government High School and a beneficiary of the program, has rendered his thoughts on Akshaya Patra in a poem. We wanted to share this poem with you. It was humbling for us, not only to read his beautiful thoughts on Akshaya Patra, but also the fact that in the far corners of the less privileged child's world, talent glows unhindered.

Noble is the goal of Akshaya Patra
Blessing for the underprivileged
Blessed are we that we are under its shade
Let its music spread everywhere

Toiling it is, for our benefit
Reaching us timely and without fail
Akshaya Patra is the lighting lamp of our life
Pray that it be truly - Akshaya - inexhaustible

Leads the underprivileged to light
Brings a twinkle in every pupil's eye
Noble is the goal of Akshaya Patra
Unfortunate are those who do not appreciate this

From darkness to light
From gloom to bloom
From drowning in the deep sea to safety
Akshaya Patra is the beacon of our life

Noble is the cause of Akshaya Patra


the official website: http://www.akshayapatra.org/

Obama's Praise for Akshaya Patra: http://www.akshayapatra.org/Obama.html