It is a matter of exceptional pride and honour for Akshaya Patra to be selected for the Gandhi Peace Prize.

I sincerely thank the Government of India and all the respected Jury members for recognizing our efforts to support the education and health of the children of our country by feeding them freshly cooked, nutritious, and tasty mid-day meals every school day for the past 18 years.

I would like to dedicate this award to Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, who envisioned a hunger-free world and urged his disciples and followers to take up the mission of feeding the hungry, especially children.

Driven by the vision ‘No child should be deprived of education because of hunger,’ we started our food-for-education revolution back in the year 2000. Since then, we have grown from strength to strength, to reach over 1.76 million children with nutritious food every school day.

I would like to thank the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, and all the State Governments for giving us the opportunity to serve the children of our country and for their continued support and encouragement to the programme.

Earlier this month, we reached the milestone of serving cumulative 3 Billion Meals. A significant moment for us, this milestone was commemorated by our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji.

Today, we join an extraordinary league of people and organizations from across the world who have been instruments of social change in social, economic, and political transformation. It brings about feelings of both: pride and humility.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my heartiest congratulations to our fellow recipients: Sulabh International, Ekal Abhiyan Trust, Vivekananda Kendra and Mr. Yohei Sasakawa. I wish you all the best for your future endeavours.

I accept this honour with a profound sense of gratitude on the behalf of our trustees, donors, well-wishers and over 7,500 staff members of Akshaya Patra. This award has enthused us to continue working towards an India where no child is hungry… an India where hunger will no more be an impediment for education.