Vadodara, 20th April 2023: Adding another milestone to their long-standing relationship, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) has reiterated its support towards The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s mission to eliminate child malnutrition in India by donating six customised delivery vehicles – one vehicle each for Vadodara, Bhavnagar and two vehicles each for Bhuj and Jamnagar that will help transport hot and nutritious mid-day meals to over 12,300 children across 83 government schools, in Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Bhuj district. Akshaya Patra serves over 1,47,892 government school children from these four kitchens across Gujarat.

Six vehicles supported by GSECL were flagged off at Akshaya Patra’s Vadodara kitchen on 15th April 2023, in the presence of Shri M. D. Bajwa, General Manager – HR Shri Ravi Pareek, Company Secretary; Shri Bhavesh Patel, SE – Civil; Ms Ritu Atthwal, CSR officer from GSECL; and from Akshaya Patra Shri Raya Rama Dasa, Vice President, Gujarat was present.

A representative from GSECL said “Power Generation and wealth generation are not the only things that we, as an institute, are involved in. When we live in a society, the well-being of its people and our environment also become our concern and responsibility. So we work to also give back to society and work for its upliftment.

GSECL under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has identified six categories to form the focus of our work – Sustainable Infrastructure, Quality Education, Optimum Healthcare, Green and Clean Environment, Animal Welfare and Inclusive Living for the specially-abled.

In India 43 per cent of children are malnourished and 1.5 million are on the brink of becoming victims of malnourishment because of inflation. On the other side, 1.8 million children in India are out of school.

With the aim to address issues related to malnutrition, hunger and deprivation of education, the Foundation incentivises children to attend school with food. One such community impact project was flagged off today with The Akshay Patra Foundation at Vadodara by donating six Meal Delivery Vehicles with customised insulating bodies which will reach out to thousands of underprivileged students of more than 80+ government schools of Rural Gujarat and will provide them hot nutritive meals for their better growth and well-being.”

Acknowledging the support, Sri Jaganmohan Krishna Dasa, President, Akshaya Patra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, said, “We are honoured to have partnered with GSECL and immensely grateful to them for donating us six new delivery vehicles for four locations in Gujarat. Our long-time collaboration with GSECL for the school feeding program has just strengthened with time. We hope it will continue to flourish as we believe that such partnerships play a crucial role in helping us reach out to over 2 million children across the country every school day.” He further added, “We are also thankful to the Ministry of Education, the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat for providing us the opportunity to serve the children.”

About Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL)

Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) was incorporated in August 1993 and is registered under the Companies Act, 1956 with the objectives to initiate a process of restructuring the Power Sector and to mobilise resources from the market for adding to the generating capacity of the State and improving the quality and cost of existing generation.

Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited established the Swarnim Urja Trust to carry out all Corporate Social Responsibility activities. Swarnim Urja Trust primarily engages in initiatives that benefit people and society at large. The activities mainly cover the aspects relating to Sustainable Infrastructure, Quality Education, Optimum Healthcare, Green and Clean Environment, Animal Welfare and Inclusive Living for the specially-abled.

About The Akshaya Patra Foundation

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that strives to address classroom hunger and malnutrition in India. By implementing the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan (formerly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme) in government and government-aided schools, Akshaya Patra aims to fight hunger and, at the same time, bring children to school. Since 2000, Akshaya Patra has worked towards reaching out to children with wholesome food every single school day. The Foundation is continuously leveraging technology to cater to millions of children. Its state-of-the-art kitchens have become a subject of study and attract curious visitors from around the world.

In partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments and the inestimable support of many philanthropic donors and well-wishers, Akshaya Patra has grown from humble beginnings serving just 1,500 school children across five schools to becoming the world’s largest (not-for-profit run) mid-day meal programme, serving wholesome food to over 2 million children from 22,367 schools in 67 kitchens across 15 states and 2 union territories in India.

 For more details: https://www.akshayapatra.org/