President Murmu Praises Akshaya Patra's 5 Billion Meals Milestone

President Droupadi Murmu highlighted the critical role of school nutrition in advancing India's educational and developmental goals during a commemorative event in New Delhi on Tuesday, where she praised the Akshaya Patra Foundation for reaching the milestone of serving five billion meals to schoolchildren over 25 years.

The event, held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre under the theme "From a Well-Nourished and Well-Educated India to a Developed India," celebrated the foundation's contributions to child nutrition and education. As an implementing partner of the government's PM POSHAN midday meal scheme, Akshaya Patra provides fresh, nutritious meals to students in government schools nationwide. The organization currently serves about 2.35 million children daily through 78 centralized kitchens across 16 states and three union territories, with plans to expand to three million children by 2030. In Telangana alone, it delivers 250,000 meals each day via five kitchens.

Murmu, addressing an audience that included Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the foundation's founders Madhu Pandit Dasa and Chanchalapathi Dasa, described the five billion meals as a...