Akshaya Patra to Honor Janardan and Linda Thakkar

HOUSTON: Akshaya Patra is a secular, not for profit organization that serves 1.8 million midday hot meals to school children in India. This is only possible with generous support from our community. We would like to recognize one of the philanthropists from Houston community. He is Janardan Thakkar. He is also advisor to the Akshaya Patra Houston chapter.

Janardan Thakkar’s professional career was as an engineer, entrepreneur and small business owner, and business turnaround consultant. He began his career working his way up in the manufacturing industry, and in 1986 was able to purchase a small house with a garage machine shop in Houston to start his own entrepreneurial journey. With his life partner Linda by his side, they grew the company into a successful manufacturing enterprise serving several prominent companies in variety of industries. Following the sale of their company, Janardan armed with manufacturing expertise and keen business acumen started consulting Manufacturing companies to turn around their business to greater efficiencies, profitability and growth path. Janardan holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mysore University, Mysore, India, a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA, and finished a majority of coursework in the MBA program at University of Houston in 1981.

Janardan and his wife Linda have supported philanthropic causes for the past 20+ years including the education, hunger, arts, social development, and other humanitarian causes. They believe that hunger is one of the major causes of a child’s deficiency in mental and physical development, as well as educational and social achievements. Towards this, Janardan and Linda formed The Thakkar Family foundation which supports organizations that excel at providing nutrition and education to help children achieve their maximum potential. They also support many other organizations like the Houston Food Bank, 100 Club, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, American Diabetes Association to name a few.

As time progressed, Janardan and Linda became more aware of Akshaya Patra and its mission of “No child should go hungry” and the mid-day school meal program that keeps the children at school and makes for a more educated youth and a better society of tomorrow.

They have now become great supporters of the work being done by Akshaya Patra and they have funded a kitchen in Bengaluru, India which will serve everyday midday hot lunches to 35,000 children for years to come. They have also provided funding for the replacement equipment at Vrindavan UP location kitchen. Saying Thanks to them is a small word for the BIG philanthropic and noble hearts they both have and we are full of gratitude for their benevolence and for their support which is helping us to feed more children in India, keep them motivated to stay in the school, getting more of them educated and having a much better world of tomorrow. Good and noble deeds such as these have a long-term benefit and we salute the thought, the selflessness, and the patronage towards such causes.

Janardan will be a guest of honor for Akshaya Patra upcoming fund-raising event on Saturday August 13^th at 6:30PM at VPSS hall, Houston. The event includes full vegetarian dinner followed by a musical concert by Sanjeevani Bhelande and her orchestra. All donation, sponsorship and ticket purchase can be done online https://tinyurl.com/AP-Houston or call Ashok Shah at 832-518-9938