New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) The Akshaya Patra Foundation in partnership with United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) today felicitated 'change-makers' contributing towards sustainable development under the Feed the Future Now initiative.

The 'Nourish the Change Awards 2018' organised for the first time identified upcoming change-makers who are making positive contribution towards 'Sustainable Development Goal #2 Zero Hunger, the Akshaya Patra Foundation said.

The award ceremony coincided with the World Hunger Day 2018.

Among those awarded included Anoop Khanna for providing Rs 5 meals to urban poor through his Dadi ki Rasoi, Cuddles Foundation for ensuring nutrition solutions for cancer affected children, Arushi Batra for voluntary work through Robin Hood Army, the Better India for bringing to masses positive stories of change and inspiration, Good Era for helping social organisations measure and improve their impact and Trupti Jain for Bhungroo- an innovative product helping improve agriculture yield in drought affected areas.

Feed the Future Now is an initiative to scale up cross sector partnership, said Shridhar Venkat, CEO, Akashya Patra.

The Foundation has already been working in collaboration with the government and corporate groups for the last 18 years.

It currently feeds about 17.12 lakh school children through its mid-day meal in 12 states at 40 locations across the country, Venkat said.

There are plans to add more kitchens with about three in Delhi, one in Ghaziabad and eight in Uttarakhand.

Kamal Singh, executive director of UNGC said, "UNGC is committed to achieve sustainable development goals outlined by United Nations and initiatives such as ‘Nourish the Change' awards help significantly in mobilising the community of change-makers to achieve those goals.We are very happy to partner with Akshaya Patra to nurture the Impact ecosystem in India and are hopeful that our sustained collaborative efforts will lead to positive social outcomes."

Feed The Future Now, based on the premise that every child deserves a nutritious diet, a fulfilling education and a bright future has collaboration from corporate houses such as GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, Nestle, Reliance Fresh, Viacom18, Facebook, Big FM, PVR Cinemas and The Lalit Group of Hotels. It aims at feeding school children by providing 500 crore meals by 2020.

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