Former US President Bill Clinton serves midday meals to Jaipur students and announces $2million donation to NGO



Wednesday was an extraordinary day for students at a Government Secondary Sanskrit School in Jaipur's Pratap Nagar locality, as they found former US president Bill Clinton serving them their midday meal.



Clinton, accompanied by a delegation including his associates in the Clinton Foundation that he heads, oversaw the Jaipur-based kitchen of Akshay Patra, an NGO that runs perhaps the largest network of kitchens in the world, providing free midday meals to over a million school children across India.

The kitchen in Jaipur feeds almost 1.5 lakh people every day, including 1.25 lakh school children studying in over 1,100 government schools in Jaipur district, as part of the midday meal scheme.



Reaching out: Former US president Bill Clinton, along with Akshay Patra members, serves midday meals to students at a Government Secondary Sanskrit School in Jaipur's Pratap Nagar locality

It also provides food to about 20,000 Anganwadi workers and 4,000 daily wage labourers at over 40 locations across the city every evening, at a nominal price of Rs 5 per person.

Impressed by the NGO's work, Clinton announced a donation of $2million to the organisation.



Scion of the former princely state of Jaipur, and BJP legislator from Sawai Madhopur, Diya Kumari, was also present there as the state government's representative.



Clinton maintained that programmes like the one run by the NGO have been successful not only in encouraging poor parents to send their kids to schools, but also in solving the problem of hunger across the world.

He advised the students to set high dreams and work hard to realise them.

Building towards the 10th Annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting this year, Clinton's visit was part of CGI Commitments to Action, originally made by Akshaya Patra and the Deshpande Foundation in 2007, which they later expanded in 2008 in partnership with the Government of India, said a spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation.



Clinton will also visit the Jabrouli village in Lucknow on Thursday, where the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is advancing proper treatment of diarrhea.

