Zydus Wellness Ltd. Partners with Akshaya Patra

Zydus Wellness Ltd. Partners with Akshaya Patra

  • January, 1 1970
  • 2 minutes read

Zydus Wellness Ltd., a global healthcare provider, has partnered with Akshaya Patra for their 'Donate Your Calories to Help Nourish Children' campaign, through their sugar substitute brand 'Sugar Free'. The campaign highlights the contrast between the people who carry extra calories, and the millions of people in India who suffer with malnutrition every day.

The campaign puts these extra calories to good use with the idea that every time someone uses Sugar Free they save on 'unwanted calories' which are converted to 'useful calories' as a monetary contribution to The Akshaya Patra Foundation. The proceeds from this campaign will be used to provide children with regular access to the tasty, nutritious Akshaya Patra mid-day meals, and an education too. This message will be promoted on every Sugar Free packet, and across multimedia platforms.

The campaign was launched across India on September 13, 2014 from Mumbai. The occasion was attended by celebrities like Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, actress Tisca Chopra, along with Ganesh Nayak (ED and COO, Zydus Cadila) and Elkana Ezekiel (MD, Zydus Wellness Ltd).

Encapsulating the importance of the campaign, Ganesh Nayak said, "While a large proportion of India had excess calorie consumption leading to a state of weight gain, an even larger proportion did not have a nutritious meal every day. There was thus a state of calorie imbalance. In partnership with Akshaya Patra, we designed this campaign around Sugar Free to create a calorie balance by donating the calories saved by Sugar Free consumers to undernourished children, through the mid- day meal program which targets school children."

These calories saved by Sugar Free will be directly instrumental in addressing malnutrition and reducing classroom hunger in India. At the launch of the campaign Zydus Wellness Ltd. made a token donation of 5 million calories towards The Akshaya Patra Foundation, which will be monetised later.

"Our partnership with Zydus Wellness, which was launched a few days back will help serve fresh, hot, nutritious meals to Akshaya Patra children who go to Government schools, around 10,500 of them in the country. And we expect that this campaign will spread sweetness while people donate their calories," said Shridhar Venkat, CEO of The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

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