Growing Up Quicker with Marico

July 2013 – Civil Society

It’s been 13 years since Akshaya Patra served its first meals to 1,500 students at five government schools across Bangalore. Since then, the organisation has become the world’s largest midday meal programme, providing nutritious lunches for 1.5 million students across nine states last year.

Though Akshaya Patra has not yet attained its ambitious founding vision that “no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”, the organisation has demonstrated remarkable capacity for growth, increasing its reach 1,000 times in only 10 years. By 2020, Akshaya Patra hopes to reach fully 5 million children, and aspires to complete obsolescence by 2030 when, they hope, lack of food will no longer be an obstacle to education. Yet a simple question remains: how will they get there?