After 25 years of serving children, the Akshaya Patra Foundation inaugurated a centralised kitchen in Gorakhpur that can cook one lakh nutritious meals per day as part of the PM POSHAN initiative. The facility will cater to children from Gorakhpur and surrounding areas and support the school nutrition system in terms of scale, safety, and sustainability.

Akshaya Patra started its journey in Gorakhpur in 2019 to provide around five thousand children with nutritious meals. Later, the programme was extended to 17,000 students using a temporary facility. The new kitchen has enabled the programme to expand its reach to 55,000 children in 546 schools, with a phased plan to reach 100,000 children in 1,570 schools.

The kitchen is spread across 2.5 acres and is built using gas and steam technology, which supports efficient operations and sustainability. It currently has 23 electric vehicles for meal delivery, rainwater harvesting facilities, a 2-lakh-litre wastewater treatment plant, and a 160-kilowatt solar plant to power its operations. High-capacity equipment, including roti-making machines, helps maintain production capacity by producing 40,000 rotis per hour. A biogas plant is proposed in Phase II to improve waste management and energy efficiency.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Primary Education Minister Sandeep Singh attended the event along with other dignitaries. Speaking at the event, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath noted the correlation between nutrition and nation-building in that proper nutrition of children’s mind and body builds up self-reliance in India.

Akshaya Patra leaders highlighted the importance of public-private partnership in the areas of health and education. As one of the implementing partners of PM POSHAN, the foundation’s kitchen in Gorakhpur utilises the technologies and eco-friendly facilities in promoting learning and healthy lives of children.

Akshaya Patra is currently active in 16 states and 3 Union Territories, providing meals to more than 2.35 million children per day and working towards ensuring that children's education is not affected by hunger.