Film stars pat Akshaya Patra

'School meal programme God's gift to society' Visakhapatnam: A team of cine artistes comprising Kamal Kamraj, Adonica, Sri Lekha, Vijay and Kumaran, which was on a visit to the city for the shooting of 'Arvind-2' movie which would be released soon, praised the selfless service being rendered by Akshaya Patra Foundation through its school meal programme. To create awareness among public and philanthropists on their social responsibility, the Akshaya Patra Foundation invited the movie stars to involve themselves in the meal programme being run at the Gandhinagar School, Thotagaruvu in the city, on Tuesday. Akshaya Patra Foundation president Nishkinchina Bhakta Dasa told the team that they were the world's largest 'school meal programme providers' serving 14 lakh children across eight States in India. In Andhra Pradesh, they were organising the programme in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. The Vizag Akshaya Patra unit was serving 40,000 beneficiaries daily covering 330 Anganwadi centres and seven high schools. The concept and vision of Akshaya Patra were explained to the artistes through a video presentation. Later, the cine artistes interacted with the children, who were delighted to see the actors whom they generally view only on TV channels. The artistes fed the kids and expressed their satisfaction for being part of a great event. Mr Kamal Kamraj underscored the need to take care of the nation's fixed asset � 'children and youth'. He said that his wish was fulfilled when he came to know about the contribution of Akshaya Patra. Ms Sri Lekha too expressed deep satisfaction and said that it was God's gift to society. She said she would participate in future events and thanked Mr Niskinchana Bhakta Dasa for giving them the opportunity. Child development project officer urban-1 D Venkateswari and supervisor Rajarajeswari participated. The organisers of Akshaya Patra appealed to the public to donate for the noble cause of feeding children as part of their social responsibility.