Akshaya Patra UK

Who we are

Akshaya Patra, which means limitless pot [of food] in Sanskrit, was founded in India to help remove hunger and poverty as barriers to vulnerable children attending school and receiving an all-important education. Our work began in the year 2000 in Bengaluru, Karnataka with nutritious school meals initially being provided to just 1,500 children at five schools.

Today, 24 years on, The Akshaya Patra Foundation India feeds more than 2.2 million children every day in 24,000 schools across 18 states or union territories - representing the largest single-country school meals programme, run by a charity, anywhere in the world.

Akshaya Patra's presence in the UK was first established in 2007 to invite and accept the generosity of British donors for our work in India. However, in 2020, we decided to inaugurate our movement's first international kitchen in North London to respond to the growing problem of food poverty in the UK. The Akshaya Patra Foundation UK has since served more than 700,000 nutritious meals to British beneficiaries, principally to children experiencing hunger during holiday periods when they are not able to rely on free school meals.