The first centralised tribal kitchen in Telangana was inaugurated on Saturday at the agriculture market yard in Lakshmidevipally, at Kothagudem mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, by the Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF), to serve meals to 30,000 children.
The kitchen, constructed at a cost of ₹1.60 crore with the support of Nava Bharat Ventures Limited and film producer-philanthropist Shobhu Yarlagadda, will cater to children across five mandals – Kothagudem, Lakshmidevipalli, Sujathanagar, Chunchupalli and Ramavaram. Kothagudem MLA Jalagam Venkat Rao, executive director of Nava Bharat Ventures G.R.K. Prasad, Mr. Yarlagadda, Collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanth, SP Amber Kishore Jha and others were present on the occasion.
APF president (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa thanked donors for supporting the project and pointed out that the endeavour aimed at eradicating classroom hunger.
“We are committed to serve the nation and feed 5 million children by 2020,” he said.
Kitchen tour
The guests were given a tour of the kitchen and its features were explained. APF’s mid-day meal programme benefits about 16.6 lakh children from 13,839 schools, across 12 States.
In Telangana, Akshaya Patra feeds 1.58 lakh beneficiaries every day, including mid-day meals to 1.12 lakh children in 1,124 schools and 46,407 Anganwadi beneficiaries across seven districts, a press release said.
