First Lego League of Acton Supports Akshaya Patra

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First Lego League of Acton Supports Akshaya Patra at Annual Boston Indian Independence Day Celebrations
 
Boston, August 20 – Inspired by their visit to the Akshaya Patra kitchen in India that freshly prepares nutritious meals for over a hundred thousand disadvantaged children in a few hours, youngsters from the First Lego League of Acton, MA celebrated Annual Independence Day of India, August 14, 2011 at Boston Hatch Shell by displaying a Lego model of the (gravity flow) kitchen. Tasked to develop a project that worked with food safety, the children who were impressed by the use of technology and the strict hygiene standards adhered to by the Akshaya Patra kitchens created their own Lego version of the kitchen. The display was continually surrounded by curious attendees, and the children enthusiastically explained how food is prepared and delivered safely to the children by implementing the highest hygienic standards.  To ensure hunger is not a barrier to education for their peers in India, the children also raised $300 in donations during the event.

“It was a touching display of their passion for science and technology and compassion for their disadvantaged counterparts in India,” said Madhu Sridhar, President and CEO of Akshaya Patra USA.

The First Lego League, started by Dean Kamen, has a mission to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

The children who participated in both building the model and working at the event include Kirtana Krishnakumar, Amrita Krishnakumar, Sachit Murali, Anmol Sakarda, Anuj Sakarda, Nupur Parikh, Praneeth Kalva and Praveen Kalva.

One of the children volunteers Amrita Krishnakumar, stated “I saw that we had a donation box, brochures and bookmarks to pass out. I thought that this would actually be really fun. We had to wear these cool aprons and chef hats. We started to slowly go around passing out bookmarks and brochures. We also asked for donations from the other booths around us. I was really excited that we were earning money to help for a good cause. We quickly got $5 then $10 and finally $300 which was really a big achievement to me and our team! I was proud and happy about doing this because it is hard to survive without 3 meals a day. I think the Akshaya Patra is a great cause to support and help."
                     
About Akshaya Patra
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal programs. A public-private partnership, Akshaya Patra combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. It costs only $15 to feed a child for an entire year, and with government subsidy. This meal gives these children an incentive to come to school, stay in school and provides them with the necessary nutrients they need to develop their cognitive abilities to focus on learning. These children are not in school because of economic necessities.
 
Started modestly in Bangalore feeding 1500 children in five schools, the foundation has grown to become the largest, and certainly most innovative, school lunch program in the world.  Akshaya Patra is a great example of what can be accomplished when the public sector, private sector and the civic society collaborate-- a cost effective, scalable solution with high quality service delivery. Akshaya Patra’s next milestone is to serve 5 million children daily by 2020.

President Obama in his congratulatory note to Akshaya Patra wrote, “Your use of efficient and innovative business practices to scale up in just a few years from feeding 1,500 school children daily to almost a million is a powerful demonstration of what's possible when people work together.”
 
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For more information about this event please contact Madhu Sridhar at 781-438-3090 x1, email madhu@akshayapatrausa.org