Gift of Nutrition - Annapoorna Breakfast Programme

One of the most notables quotes of Mahatma Gandhi states, "there is enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not enough for everyone's greed"

In India (which) is poised to become the 5th largest economy with the youngest and largest workforce in the world, has a whopping 40% of its children from economically challenged families who are severely malnourished.

This is a story of how one organization from a region, often missed on the Indian map is leading a movement that is now nourishing the nation through nutrition

Many children would faint of hunger and some simply dr opped out of school because they were too weak from malnutrition. These children had access to free education and free mid-day lunch that the schools provided. But, still there was this key ingredient missing.

Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that eating a meal first thing in the morning has a positive influence on cognitive performance in school, especially on task-oriented behaviours.

Considering the need to cover this nutrition gap, in July 2012 a small group of men and women started a unique breakfast programme at a rural school in South Bangalore for children coming from impoverished families who otherwise go to school hungry as they had no access to the most important meal of the day- the breakfast,

Gradually, more schools appeared on the scene that needed to be served and a trust was formed in 2015, in Muddenahalli, in Karnataka state called the Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust, and the project was named Annapoorna Breakfast Programme.

The trust has realized that in order to have the maximum positive impact, an engaged leadership from all sectors of society is required. This is where its collaboration with local vegetable vendors, local governing bodies and authorities have proven successful in bringing a sense of responsibility among communities to come forward in raising their children and build a better future for them.

Its motto is, LET NO CHILD GO TO SCHOOL HUNGRY EVER and works with a steadfast mission to feed nutritious, well-balanced breakfast every single day to all school-going children from poor families.

The annapoorna breakfast programme project has become a platform for more than 500 volunteers to serve, in addition to the thousands of teachers at the schools. This breakfast program works closely with over 1000 local vendors in a decentralized model for a seamless execution.

Supporting this initiative are many like-minded institutional partners and government workers. MOU’s have been signed up with Govt of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,Telangana,Kerala and Puducherry.

Until date, nutritious breakfast is served everyday free of cost – to over 2,00,000 school-going children at 2,600+ centers located across 15 states and 2 union territories.

When every needy child's hunger is eradicated, when its health is fortified with nutrition, a nation too will be fortified in more ways than one.

Visit: ANNAPOORNA.ORG.IN