IITian is soon going to serve its 2 billionth free meal for school kids

Born in Nagercoil in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, Madhu Pandit Dasa did B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Mumbai in 1980 and later pursued M.Tech from there too. In IIT itself, he was influenced by the books authored by Srila Prabhupada (founder of ISCKON) and became an ISKCON member. In 1983, he had already become President of the ISCKON Temple, Trivandrum.

In July 2000, Dasa took the first-ever meal to a government school. It was meant to be a one-time activity with no plans to distribute meals the next day. But children loved it and the Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) was founded.

Since then, APF’s Mid Day Meal programme has become the world’s largest school lunch programme.

For 15 years, APF (under the guidance of Dasa) has distributed free lunches to about 1.4 million children. Very soon, the NGO is going to serve its 2 billionth free lunch to students of government school. Madhu Dasa was awarded Padma Shri in January 2016 for his colossal efforts.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, APF has also won several accolades for its transparency, hygiene standards and tech-savvy delivery of meals.

The foundation is looking forward to implement innovative ideas in its sourcing, operations and fundraising activities to be able deliver good and safe lunch to children in schools on a daily basis. It is also open to share its experience and learning with other organizations or individuals who would like to work in the field of alleviating hunger amongst children.