Photo: TV9 Bangla
West Bengal’s chief minister told a Nandigram election rally that ISKCON will run the mid-day meal scheme for the whole constituency, 245,000 schoolchildren, within two months. The announcement comes three weeks after his government withdrew an approval given to the Akshaya Patra Foundation for four districts, and as ISKCON’s own Annamrita Foundation, which feeds about 50,000 Kolkata students, says it is not the same body as the Bangalore-based Akshaya Patra.
NANDIGRAM, West Bengal — Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on 2 October 2026 that ISKCON will operate the mid-day meal programme across Nandigram, with 245,000 school students to receive its meals within the next two months, Bartaman Patrika reported.[1] He cited the Kolkata programme, where about 50,000 students already eat meals cooked by ISKCON, and answered opposition criticism of the vegetarian menu by saying eggs are supplied twice a week through self-help groups.[1] The Trinamool Congress has said ISKCON’s role “is not providing mid-day meals; they build palaces”.[4]
Speaking at the Nandigram rally, the chief minister said ISKCON would run the scheme “throughout Nandigram” on the Kolkata model, and that the meals are vegetarian and sattvic with protein supplementation.[1]
“ISKCON will operate the mid-day meal throughout Nandigram.” (“ইসকন পুরো নন্দীগ্রামে মিড ডে মিল পরিচালনা করবে।”)
Suvendu Adhikari, Chief Minister of West Bengal, at Nandigram, as reported by Bartaman Patrika, 2 October 2026[1]
Three days earlier, at Madhusudan Pal Chaudhuri High School in Howrah, he had announced that ISKCON would also take over mid-day meals in Howrah, that the per-meal allocation had been raised from ₹6.78 to ₹10, and that 44,000 Kolkata students were then receiving ISKCON meals.[2]
The Kolkata meals are cooked by the Annamrita Foundation, ISKCON’s food-relief arm, from a central kitchen opened on 1 August; NDTV reports it has been serving about 500 schools under PM-POSHAN since August.[3][4] A separate body, the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which is linked to the Bangalore society that broke away from ISKCON, submitted a proposal to the chief minister on 11 July and on 21 August was entrusted with mid-day meals in Howrah, Purulia, Purba Medinipur and North 24 Parganas. The School Education Department withdrew that approval by a notification dated 11 September, before any food had been supplied.[4]
On 15 September Annamrita issued a statement, reported by TV9 Bangla, saying it would continue serving Kolkata through its central kitchen, that it had received positive feedback on quality, nutrition, cleanliness and taste, and that it would work with the state government going forward. The statement said the international ISKCON administration and the Bangalore-based society “cannot be considered the same in their administrative structures”.[3]
One of the new BJP government’s first decisions was to hand Kolkata’s school meals to ISKCON; a row followed over eggs leaving the menu, and the government adjusted the plan, NDTV reported.[4] After the Akshaya Patra withdrawal, Trinamool Congress MLA Kunal Ghosh asked what was going on.[4]
“We saw that the responsibility for the mid-day meal scheme was initially entrusted to ISKCON. Then, the responsibility was shifted to another organisation. Now, the Education Department is indicating that the task might be handed over to them again. What exactly is going on? … ISKCON’s role is not providing mid-day meals; they build palaces.”
Kunal Ghosh, Trinamool Congress MLA, to NDTV, 15 September 2026[4]
At Nandigram the chief minister dismissed what he called the “Lal Babus’” objection that there is no non-vegetarian option, saying the scheme ensures three-quarters of eligible students receive nourishment and that eggs are given twice a week.[1]
ISKCON’s role as a government mid-day meal contractor has been a recurring subject on this site. In September 2019 Akincana Gocara translated two Dainik Jagran reports: one from Jamshedpur, where the Bishtupur central kitchen feeding about 50,000 students in 383 schools complained that the rice supplied by the government was spoiled, with odours, stones and rotten sacks (“ISKCON Mid-Day-Meals Rice from Government Mostly Spoiled”); and one from Gurugram, where pupils of a state primary school in Nathupur found worms in kadhi-rice supplied by ISKCON and the district education chief ordered an inquiry (“OMG! Worms found in Midday meal provided by ISKCON”).
The site has also carried the case against such programmes from within ISKCON. In “Mission Drift”, first published in 2011, Krishna-kirti Dasa argued that welfare food distribution detached from Krishna-centred preaching turns the movement into a mundane charity, quoting the mid-day meal programme’s own “helping to build the nation” brochures. In “What did Prabhupada Desire Regarding Prasad Distribution?”, Basu Ghosh Das distinguished prasadam distributed at temples from institutional involvement in mid-day meal and relief schemes, citing Srila Prabhupada’s 1972 reply to a drought-relief request that put spiritual uplift before material welfare.
On the political side, the Right to Food Campaign’s objection to ISKCON’s role in Maharashtra’s school and anganwadi meals, reported by Counterview on 7 October, shows the same contract model drawing criticism in a second state at the same time.
The chief minister did not name which ISKCON body would run the Nandigram kitchens, and neither Annamrita nor ISKCON Kolkata had published a statement on the Nandigram or Howrah announcements as of 8 October. The two-month timeline, the funding and the contract have not been detailed in the reports cited here. A similar handover of school and anganwadi meals to ISKCON in Maharashtra drew a protest from the Right to Food Campaign on 7 October.
A viral video led Odisha’s Child Helpline and Labour Department to inspect ISKCON Dhenkanal on…
During the Pitru Paksha Mela, when pilgrims pour into Gaya to perform rites for their…
Seven weeks after the University of Florida ended Krishna Lunch’s 55-year run on campus, a…
Senior ISKCON leaders react to the removal of the final paragraph of Srila Prabhupada’s purport…
West Bengal’s urban development minister chaired a high-level administrative meeting at ISKCON Mayapur’s Lotus Building…
At least nine people were injured on the morning of 1 October when followers of…