Bangalore, November 21, 2025: Amazon India has announced a new collaboration with ICLEI South Asia to establish 25 urban food gardens in schools across Karnataka by 2027, further expanding its nutrition-focused initiatives that have already supported 250,000 children in the state. The initiative is part of Amazon’s broader investment in food security, digital inclusion, sustainability, and community development.
The effort is supported through a $1 million contribution from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund (RNCF) to ICLEI South Asia for creating a total of 75 urban food gardens by 2028 across schools in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata. These gardens provide students hands-on experience in growing vegetables while learning about sustainability. Early pilot projects in Bengaluru have already distributed 10–12 vegetable varieties to students over four months, with plans to extend the program to 16 more schools in the next six months.
Amazon’s nutrition initiatives in Karnataka also include its long-standing partnership with The Akshaya Patra Foundation. The collaboration, which began in 2017 through support to the Ksheera Bhagya milk programme benefiting 170,000 children in Bengaluru government schools, has since expanded to include digital education and operational support. In 2024, Amazon launched Project Aasha, enabling employees to contribute supply-chain and logistics expertise to improve Akshaya Patra’s operations. In 2025, Amazon employees helped prepare and distribute nearly 450,000 mid-day meals nationwide.
“From funding milk programs to building creative ways for children to understand nutrition, our programs and initiatives have continuously evolved to meet the changing needs of children and communities,” said Abhinav Singh, VP Operations, Amazon India and Australia. “Together with Akshaya Patra and ICLEI, we are creating lasting impact that goes beyond food to education on nutrition and sustainability in the formative years of a student’s life.”
Dr. Monalisa Sen, Associate Director at ICLEI South Asia, said, “Urban gardens are more than nutrition; they cultivate sustainability awareness and empower students to grow their own future.”
Shridhar Venkat, CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, added, “Amazon has been a transformative partner since 2017, evolving from the Ksheera Bhagya programme to encompass digital education and operational excellence through Project Aasha. We are grateful for their continued support as we work towards ensuring no child in India is deprived of education because of hunger.”
The Right Now Climate Fund — a $100 million global initiative — has allocated $3.28 million in India since its launch in 2023, contributing to ecosystem restoration and biodiversity protection. Current RNCF-supported projects include the Wild Carbon initiative in the Western Ghats, benefiting 10,000 farming households through the plantation of one million trees, and a $1.2 million mangrove restoration project in Mumbai’s Thane Creek aimed at strengthening coastal ecosystems and creating livelihoods for women.
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