Devotees consider the food served at the Nitya Annadanam facility at Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham as prasada. The meal includes steaming rice, sambar with vegetables, a special curry, butter milk and two sweets. Lunch is served from 12:15 PM to 2:30 PM and dinner from 7:15 PM to 8:30 PM
The Nitya Annadanam is one of the largest free dining facilities in the country. It provides food to 30, 000 to 35,000 people a day. This includes visitors to Sringeri and over 12,000 school children in the surrounding villages.
The dining area can accommodate over 2500 people at a time. During pilgrim season and festivals, more than 50,000 devotees partake in the prasada.
Every day 3.5 tonnes of rice, 600 kg of dal, 500 kg of vegetables and 400 kg of sugar and jaggery are used to prepare the meals.
Dakshinaya Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham at Sringeri in Karnataka was established by Adi Shankaracharya on the banks of Tungabhadra River. The religious centre was founded on Vedic practices. It later came under the strong influence of the bhakti movement. Sringeri Mutt is first among the four mutts established by Adi Shankara on the four directions in India. Goddess Sharada, Maa Saraswati, is worshipped in the main temple here and it attracts thousands of devotees daily.