Caterpillar Helps Feed Children In India

In 2010, the Caterpillar Foundation helped underprivileged school children in India by contributing to Akshaya Patra, the largest charitable midday meal program in the world. With its large industrial kitchens throughout India and a sophisticated distribution network, Akshaya Patra provides nutritious school meals to more than one million students each day.

Recently, the Caterpillar Foundation committed an additional $441,000 to Akshaya Patra to purchase equipment that will be used to produce more than 10 million school meals in 2012.

Foundation funds will help provide a two-ton steam boiler for Akshaya Patra's Assam kitchen, six oil tanks to store more than 2,000 gallons of oil at each of six centralized kitchens and various smaller kitchen implements for the Akshaya Patra Orissa kitchen in Puri, India.

"Caterpillar is proud to support this important project to help school children in need of proper nourishment," said Ganesh R. Iyer, general manager of Caterpillar India-Hosur. "By taking care of the hunger, we are fueling the bodies and minds of the children."

The Caterpillar Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Caterpillar Inc. Founded in 1952, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more than $500 million to help make sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs.