On World Hunger Day Akshaya Patra and Zee Media team up to tackle nutrition challenges

New Delhi: The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly had a deadly impact on health, economy, travel, business and other aspects of livelihood, making physical wellness and safety the need of the hour. The world has never faced a hunger emergency like this, say experts. It could double the number of people facing acute hunger to 265 million by the end of this year. In India too, children, daily-wage labourers, and migrants to cities from less developed states are the worst hit. And it’s time that we stand up for them. 

On World Hunger Day (May 28, 2020), Zee Media and Akshaya Patra joined hands to support millions of children and their families across India who continue to face hunger and inadequate nutrition due to COVID-19. Highlighting the enormity of the challenge, even before the pandemic struck India had slipped to the 102nd position out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019, placing behind its neighbours Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Plus, as per FAO estimates in 'The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2019' report, 194.4 million people in India are undernourished. Worryingly, 51.4% of women in the reproductive age bracket between 15 to 49 years are anaemic, a grave consequence of the lack of access to appropriate nutrition.

It is against this backdrop that our specially designed Telethon, anchored by Anil Singhvi, served as a platform to our partner Akshaya Patra to showcase the work it has done to mitigate hunger during this challenging time and highlight the role played by its various stakeholders. The Telethon also saw industry leaders and celebrities -- including TV Mohandas Pai, Sanjeev Sharma, Akhil Saxena, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Shankar Mahadevan, Sanjeev Kapoor, Vijay Sethi, Piyush Patnaik, Ritu Jhingon, Umesh Revankar and Shridhar Venkat – join Akshaya Patra for this important initiative.

Highlighting the exemplary work already done by Akshaya Patra, Mohandas Pai, trustee of The Akshaya Patra Foundation recalled the journey of how the mid-day meal programme started serving 1500 meals in 2000 to its present serving of 1.8 million mid-day meals, every school day . In the same vein, Akhil Saxena, Amazon India vice president customer fulfilment, mentioned how his company in 2017 formed a partnership with Akshaya Patra to provide fortified milk to 5 lakh children. In addition, together they launched the ‘essential box donation’ by which anyone could buy the Rs 200 box containing dry rations which is handed over to the Akshaya Patra foundation who hand it over to the needy families. Around 17 lakh meals have been delivered through this initiative alone.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actors Raveena Tandon and Lara Dutta, as well as musician Shankar Mahadevan and chef Sanjeev Kapoor, echoed similar sentiments when they emphasised how impressed they were with the work that Akshaya Patra was doing to eradicate hunger and improve nourishment of children. On the other hand, industry captains such as Vijay Sethi, head Corporate Social Responsibility at Hero MotoCorp, Piyush Patnaik, Cargill India MD, and Ritu Jhingon, head of Vedanta Limited's CSR project, pushed for a pledge to feed the hungry and not depend solely on government and corporates.

Finally, Akshaya Patra CEO Shridhar Venkat thanked all supporters and emphasised how 18 lakh children from over 19 thousand schools were getting a nutritious meal, every school day because of Akshaya Patra’s work. Besides, in 57 days of the COVID crisis, 5.7 crore meals have been given out as part of their food relief efforts. He also stressed that even if we set aside Rs 5 per day, we can save a person from hunger. People can help Akshaya Patra by either donating, volunteering or joining the #KnowHungerNoHunger campaign to help raise funds and reach out to thousands of families with immediate relief assistance. So on this World Hunger Day let us take a cue from the Akshaya Patra foundation and pledge to ensure no one goes hungry ever again. 

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