By Sanjiv Goyal Featuring Vandana Tilak

In this article you will learn about:

• Breaking the cycle of poverty
• The Akshaya Patra Foundation
• The importance of educating girls
• Female leadership
• Giving back

The Woman Behind The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Vandana Tilak never imagined she would be a CEO, especially not in her fifties. Looking back on the varied experiences in her life, it is clear to her that everything prepared her for the role she is in today as CEO of the Akshaya Patra Foundation an NPO committed to feeding 1.8 Indian school children each day.

Her preparation started as a young child when Tilak trained and toured with her mother who was a bandleader and a classically trained singer. By the time she left home, Tilak had performed in over 800 shows.

Tilak is the embodiment of pivoting to purpose and staying flexible. Since settling in LA in the eighties, she has changed careers and industries every few years. She is the type of person who requires new challenges and variety to feel fulfilled.

Before Akshaya Patra, Tilak went from classically trained singer to graphic designer to photographer to filmmaker to stay at home mom to working in a family-owned engineering firm to real estate, and the list goes on. She has an impressively diverse CV that makes you wonder how it could possibly belong to one person.

Vandana began working for Akshaya Patra in 2012, started the Los Angeles Chapter in October 2014, and was appointed pro bono CEO in 2018. Under her leadership, the chapter has consistently raised over $1 million dollars every year.

The Role of Education in Ending the Poverty Cycle

Children’s education is one of my passions. I believe we are all products of our environment and we should be doing everything we can to make education easily accessible to all.

I am where I am today because of the education I received and the opportunity I was afforded to attend IIT Delhi. Nearly half a million IIT alumni can attest to the power education has to improve circumstances and open doors.

In India, many children are forced to choose between going to school or working to earn enough for a daily meal. Tilak maintains that providing meals in schools is the best way to feed children. It incentivizes them to go to school and ensures they get a meal in a dignified environment.

Tilak tells us, “There are 120 million children in government schools in India. Their families subsist on a dollar fifty a day, and they can’t concentrate on schoolwork if they are hungry. Many of their parents are migrant workers who can only afford one meal a day…For 85% of these kids, this is the only meal they get.”

The Akshaya Patra Foundation serves the midday meal in schools across India. The organization successfully scaled from 1500 meals to 1.8 million, and in the next five to ten years, they hope to feed 5 million children every day. Additionally, Akshaya Patra is in the beginning stages of gathering data from impact studies.

There is currently no way to track whether these children are receiving a second meal depending on their circumstances at home. Thus it is not possible to track whether the midday meal is impacting a child’s overall health. However, the data shows that in schools where Akshaya Patra is serving meals attendance goes up and more girls attend schools. It is still common in some areas to prioritize feeding boys over girls.

When girls attend school it makes a difference not only in their lives but also in the lives of their communities. They pursue higher education, get married later, and have fewer children. Most importantly they tend to then educate their own children, breaking the cycle of poverty.

Tilak tells us, “It takes about forty years to break the cycle of poverty in a family, but with education, it can happen in one generation in as little as ten years.”

The Importance of Giving Back

India isn’t the only place children are starving. In the U.S. before the pandemic, 14 million children went to bed hungry each day. With job losses and hardships brought on by COVID it’s likely that number will swell.

Many American children only receive one meal a day at school and with lockdowns across the world children, Indian and American alike, are now in danger of not having anything to eat at all.

Giving back is as fulfilling as it is beneficial. Tilak advises us to look for causes in our own communities and lend a hand. The entrepreneur in her wants to start a kitchen in LA, where just five miles from her home are children who would benefit greatly from a hot meal.

She says when looking for a cause to get involved in, do your due diligence. Just as you would if you were investing in a company or buying a product for yourself, do your research and find the best fit for you.

The Challenges of Being A Female Leader

There is a huge gender diversity problem, especially in tech. As a female leader, Tilak advises that we must start by supporting women at home. “Support your daughters, mothers, and sisters. Support the women in your community and boost their self-worth.”

“I think the biggest challenge for women is to be authentic. They are always trying to live up to someone else’s image of them — colleagues, employees, family members. This is not over one generation. This comes from generations and hundreds of years that women have gotten different treatment than men in the family. And it’s ingrained in us.”

“Women have natural talents as leaders, they lead in the home but when they step outside it’s a different story. The world will never be fair, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t believe in yourself.”

Tilak’s advice to women everywhere: Stay true to yourself, remain authentic, believe in yourself, and speak up for yourself.

As someone who thrives on variety, Tilak has a secret weapon against boredom. Every time something becomes tedious, she keeps herself going by connecting it to her higher values and her greater purpose. “If you can’t connect the grunt work to your highest values and to something deeper in you, then it won’t work.”

Tilak has had an amazing journey and given back to her community and to the world as an artist, healer, businesswoman, mother, and leader. She is a wonderful role model for women everywhere and sets the bar very high for us all.

To find out how you can get involved with the Akshaya Patra Foundation click here.