A Leadership Talk was organized at Manav Rachna with Shri Shridhar Venkat, CEO, Akshaya Patra Foundation wherein Mr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer asked some question to Shri Shridhar Venkat. As an answer to the questions, Shri Shridhar Venkat shared that the foundation runs one of the biggest mid-day meal scheme not only in India but across the world. It is the best example of the social adventure.

Shri Shridhar Venkat shared a story behind the motivation to start working for children by the way of providing them mid-day meal. He started with 5 schools and 1500 children but today 1.580 million students, twenty thousand schools in 12 states and 2 union territories are associated with him. He added that programme-wise break-up cost for this fiscal was 84 % for the feeding programme, 11% for programme management, and 5% for fund raising and communications.

He also shared a few details about the foundation:

i.  Akshaya Patra has set up an infrastructure of intelligently engineered, centralized automated kitchens for cooking. Matching logistics support the distribution of the food in custom-built vehicles. Besides nutritious meals, the program offers education and medical interventions to ensure the holistic development of children

ii.  Hubli centre has taken the initiative to adopt an eco-friendly approach through its rainwater harvesting initiative. To start with, it has adopted rainwater harvesting system to recharge the ground water and re-use excess water for cleaning purposes etc. This project is being undertaken in partnership with organizations like the Ashoka and Deshpande Foundation.