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Hundreds attend Akshaya Patra’s fundraising Chicago Gala
Somnath Ghosh, Consul General of India in Chicago delivered opening remarks.
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Staff Reporter - Mon, 06, Oct 2025
- 14:52 EDT
- 21
Glimpses of the gala / Image courtesy: Avatans Kumar
The Akshaya Patra Foundation's 2025 Chicago Gala attracted more than 300 attendees and was designed to raise over $600,000 to support the foundation's mission by providing essential support for child nutrition and education in India.
At the Chicago Marriott Oakbrook on Oct. 5, donors, youth ambassadors, community leaders and officials gathered for an evening of speeches, performances and philanthropy.
Also Read: Akshaya Patra Foundation CEO wins Eisenhower Fellowships Impact Award
The gala’s opening remarks were delivered by Somnath Ghosh, Consul General of India in Chicago, who emphasized that while India provides highly subsidized or free food to 850 million people—the largest program of its kind in the world—challenges persist.
Youth volunteers selling handmade items to raise funds / Image courtesy: Avatans Kumar“Still there is food insecurity and that is more structural rather than availability of food,” he said. “In the hunger index there are structural problems and there is a lot to do, lot of room to improve. By the way, that is so in the United States also.”
Ghosh also thanked members of the Indian diaspora for their involvement. “Thank you for not forgetting the country of your birth… And my thanks to those, the young ones, most of them were not born and brought up in India. They have no legacy, no baggage. Thank you for your service, for remembering the country of your parents and grandparents.”
The event also featured a keynote address by author and strategist Rishad Tobaccowala, along with cultural performances by Rex & Team and Bollywood actor-comedian Ojas Rawal.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, based in India, partners with the Government of India’s PM POSHAN (formerly the Midday Meal Scheme), which provides nutritious meals to children in government schools and Anganwadi centres.
It currently serves more than 2.3 million children across 25,768 schools and centers in 78 locations spanning 16 states and three union territories.
Named after the mythical “Akshaya Patra,” a vessel said to provide an inexhaustible supply of food, the foundation has grown since its modest start in 2000, when it served meals to 1,500 children.
It is recognized as one of the world’s largest NGO-run school feeding programs, expanding its reach through public-private partnerships to ensure hunger does not prevent children from accessing education.
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