Narayanan Krishnan

Founder

Narayanan Krishnan is the founder of Akshaya Trust [1], an Indian non-profit working on hunger, elderly and disability from Madurai.

Narayanan Krishnan (born 1981) is an Indian social worker and former chef from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. In 2003 he founded the Akshaya Trust, which provides cooked meals to homeless, destitute and mentally ill people in the city.

He was named one of the top ten CNN Heroes of 2010.

Early life and career

Krishnan was born in Madurai in 1981. He trained as a chef and worked for the Taj group of hotels in Bangalore, where he won awards and was shortlisted for a posting in Switzerland.

In 2002, while visiting a temple in Madurai, he saw an elderly homeless man eating from a drain under a bridge. He resigned from his job within the week and returned to Madurai.

Akshaya Trust

Krishnan founded the Akshaya Trust in 2003. It cooks and delivers breakfast, lunch and dinner to homeless, elderly and mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai, feeding around 425 people a day. Volunteers also give those they serve haircuts and shaves.

By 2010 the trust had served more than 1.2 million meals. It later opened a residential home for people it had been feeding on the streets.

Recognition

Krishnan was selected as one of the top ten CNN Heroes in 2010. The character played by the actor Jayaprakash in the 2012 Malayalam film Ustad Hotel is based on him, and he features in the documentary The Starfish Throwers.[2][3][4]

Akshaya Trust

Akshaya Trust, founded in 2002 by Narayanan Krishnan, rescues homeless and destitute people from the streets of Madurai, serving them hot meals and providing shelter and care at Akshaya Home. It reports housing over 400 residents and continuing regular street feeding.

Akshaya Trust reports the following, on its own site: