Amid Covid-19, Akshaya Patra Foundation serves 7.7 crore meals

The Akshaya Patra Foundation has actively contributed by providing over 7.7 crore meals over the last 6 months across 52 locations in 17 states and 2 union territories, to supplement the government’s efforts during the by the Covid-19 pandemic in India.

The supplies were in the form of freshly cooked food and food relief kits with essential groceries. Akshaya Patra has been reaching out to people from vulnerable communities, such as daily-wage earners, industrial workers, labourers at construction sites, across India, since the last week of March.

The Foundation is leveraging its existing state-of-the-art kitchens in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh to prepare and serve freshly cooked meals through centres assigned by the administration.

Simultaneously, it is distributing food relief kits to vulnerable communities in these states as well as in Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. In states where the organisation does not have any existing kitchen infrastructure, relief feeding was extended from the nearest kitchen in the neighbouring state.

The contents of these kits are based on the local palate of the region with each kit having a dry ration sufficient to cook 42 or 28 meals. In this relief feeding endeavour, the Foundation has had the continued support of various state governments, corporate partners, individual donors and volunteers. Sudha Murty and Narayana Murthy, have donated Rs 10 crore to the foundation.