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From Home Furnishing Business
Surya Launches 5th Annual ‘Miles for Meals’ Campaign
September 6,
2016 by Jane Chero in Carpets / Rugs, Industry, Product, Special Events 
Surya, a major resource for rugs and home accessories, has kicked off its fifth annual Miles for Meals fundraising initiative, which supports Akshaya Patra (Unlimited Food for Education), an award-winning school lunch program that provides daily, hot nutritious meals to underserved children living in rural India.
As part of the campaign – and the inspiration for the "Miles for Meals" name – Surya employees, friends and family members will run a half marathon in Atlanta on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, to raise funds and awareness for the program.
Employees will also participate in team fundraising projects, which have in the past included car washes, craft and bake sales, a ping pong tournament and an international-themed luncheon.
"Too often, impoverished families living in remote areas in Northern India feel they have no other option but to pull their children from school to help put food on the table," said Surya President Satya Tiwari. "As a result, these children are denied the chance for an education and hope for a brighter future. Akshaya Patra is removing obstacles to education one meal – and one child – at a time, making a lasting impact in communities that previously had little or no chance of moving beyond poverty."
The campaign runs through Oct. 31. The fundraising goal for this year's campaign is $75,000, which will provide lunchtime meals for 5,000 children in Northern India for one year.
Surya created the Miles for Meals campaign in 2012, sparked by the desire to help improve the lives of children and their families living in Uttar Pradesh, India, where the company's more than 50,000 artisans reside. Surya has already raised over $215,000 for the internationally-recognized lunch program, which serves a freshly prepared hot meal every day to 1.6 million children throughout India.
Tiwari joined the Akshaya Patra USA advisory board in 2015 to help expand the reach and impact of the school lunch program. Other advisory board members include Deepak Chopra, founder, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing; Fareed Zakaria, author, journalist and host of CNN’s “GPS”; and Nitin Nohria, dean of the Harvard Business School.
Donations to Surya’s Miles for Meals campaign are tax-deductible and can be made online through Oct. 31 at www.razoo.com/us/story/Surya-Miles-For-Meals-Campaign-2016. It costs just $15 to feed one child for an entire year.