Delivering Fresh Meals to 13,210 Schools in India

See a bunch of kids playing football, shouting, grappling on the playground in the beautiful campus of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Primary School in Vadodara; it’s easy to spot Dashrath, a student of Class VII, making his way to the goal. This lad from Navayard, Vadodara is an avid sports lover and wishes to be a doctor. His parents work as labourers for the Vadodara Municipal Corporation and wish him to get educated so he could have a more prosperous life. 

This school is one of the 13,210 beneficiary schools of the Mid-Day Meal Programme run in tandem with the Government of India and executed by Akshaya Patra.

One of the top 10 NGOs in India, Akshaya Patra reaches out to 1,689,871 children in 26 locations across 11 states of India, providing them with freshly cooked meals on all school days. Of course, there’s a whole lot of machinery and infrastructure that has helped the organisation get such an expansive reach. Yet, one factor that stands out is a perfect co-ordination and empathy that exist between the government and Akshaya Patra. Both the institutions are in complete harmony and share the passion of reaching out to more and more school children each year with freshly cooked meals and facilitate education in the process. 

These are the top 3 factors that have led Akshaya Patra to serve fresh meals to 13,210 schools across India: 

1. Dietary norms: The Central Mid-Day Meal Scheme formulated by the Government of India has laid down dietary norms for the mid-day meals. A project report on mid-day meal assessing the programme in eight states, lists down the ingredients of the meals. The students of primary sections must get 450 calories, 12 grams of protein and adequate quantities of micro nutrients such as Iron, Folic Acid, and Vitamin-A, etc.  Similarly, the children of upper primary section must get 700 calories, 20 grams of protein and micro nutrients. This means that the meals contain food grains, pulses, oil and fat, vegetables and salt and condiments. Akshaya Patra kitchens strictly follow these dietary regulations. As a result of this attention to detail in supplying mid-day meals, parents are more willing to send their children since they know that the latter are being given completely healthy food. 

2. Innovation in governance: The Akshaya Patra Foundation follows Six-Sigma methodology in its centralised kitchens. All the centralised kitchens are equipped with cauldrons, trolleys, rice chutes, dal/sambar tanks, cutting boards, knives and other similar equipment that are sanitised before usage. The North Indian kitchens are equipped with rice cauldrons and dal cauldrons. The quality control process has been adapted from Food Safety Standards Act 2006 (FSSA). The rest of the process of procurement of raw material to cooking and delivery, follows similar standardised norms. Recently, Akshaya Patra was awarded for its innovation in governance. Implementing Mid-Day Meal Programme to thousands of schools as per the standards set by the government takes more than passion and vision, it takes careful planning and meticulous process. 

3. Accountability: Perhaps one of the most common factors among the top 10 NGOs in India is their ability to bring in accountability in implementation of schemes and programmes along with the government. In order to feed these many schools across the state, Akshaya Patra needs to be extremely accountable for every resource it gets and every penny it spends on getting things done. The NGO complies by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Indian Accounting Standards so as to keep high standards of transparency of the funds that are being given in charity donations to the organisation. Our focus on transparency has been recognised and rewarded on various platforms but that’s not what truly motivates us here. The accountability for workers of the women self-help groups, volunteers and thousands of staff comes naturally with the joy of serving school-going children across India.

The Mid-Day Meal Programme for school children in India is aimed at avoiding classroom hunger, increase school enrollment and attendance, improve socialisation among castes, address undernourishment and empower women through employment. The Food for Education initiative is a mission that involves an entire ecosystem including those who give away charity donations so generously. You can become a part of this mission. Donate today!

Celebrate a Noiseless Diwali with Akshaya Patra!

Every year, Diwali arrives with the noise of fireworks and ends with a lot of air pollution. So what can be done to lessen the impairment? We believe it is the little lamps that we light in our homes that display the authentic essence of Diwali. This festive season, take an oath to make this festival noise-free and more meaningful!

Diwali, also known as Deepawali, is celebrated with grandeur across the length and breadth of India. The festival of lights is so popular that the day is an official holiday in many places across the globe, including Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. While the night sky is lit up with colourful sparkles, will you pledge to make this festive season more meaningful?

Akshaya Patra, a children’s NGO in India, urges you to opt for a noise-free Diwali by choosing a box of sweets over fireworks, or by donating to children’s charity fund instead of wasting on firecrackers. Through our Mid-Day Meal Programme, we provide nutritious meals to over 1.6 million school children on every school day. This Diwali, you can pledge to support these children by lighting the lamp in your heart. With a small contribution, you can help children continue their education!

Sponsor a child and win tax exemptions!

If you are planning to do some charity this Diwali, Akshaya Patra could be your answer! Every donation of Rs 500 or above to Akshaya Patra is eligible for 100% tax exemption under section 35 AC or 50% tax exemption under Section 80 G of the Indian Income Tax.

This year, let’s embrace the spirit of Diwali with a spark! Choose whether you want to celebrate with box of fireworks or with a box of sweets. Be a part of the change and support Akshaya Patra’s food for education initiative today.

World Food Day - Akshaya Patra’s Role in Ending Hunger

As we approach the World Food Day (recognised by Food and Agriculture Organisation of UN) on October 16, the fight to end hunger must get stronger. This year’s theme ‘Climate is changing; Food and agriculture must too’ draws attention to one of the global issues related to hunger – food security. Akshaya Patra, a children’s NGO urges you to get involved in eradicating food security among school children.

Starting with 1,500 children in 2000, reaching 1.6 million children and growing, Akshaya Patra has actively campaigned in this fight against hunger. Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme, run in active collaboration with the government, is one such initiative that aims to reach children with nutritious meals. And the mission will not stop here. You may also choose to join the cause or make a donation in honour of someone you love. 

Around 30% of children in India in the age group of 1 to 5 years of age are underweight. In order to address this situation, the role of NGOs such as Akshaya Patra becomes vital. The support from government is another essential aid in the endeavour to end hunger. The Indian Government has proactively participated in the cause helping to make the process smoother so more children could be reached.

Akshaya Patra’s vision “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger” stands strong as it aims at loftier goals towards providing mid-day meal benefits to school children. This vision, however, can only be attained by ensuring availability of wholesome food to children across many government-run schools in different parts of India. Present with its kitchens across 26 places in 11 cities, Akshaya Patra has often gone beyond the role of an NGO. The Mid-Day Meal Programme aims to benefit not only in terms of provision of food but also in terms of ensuring proper education. 

On World Food Day, let us take you through the cooking process of Akshaya Patra meals. The Akshaya Patra Foundation runs its operations through two kitchen models: Centralised and Decentralised.

Centralised kitchens are semi-automated mega kitchen units that have the capacity to typically cook up to 100,000 meals a day and serve a set of schools located around the units. These units ensure optimum hygiene during the cooking process. The technology and process used in centralised kitchens have been a topic of research and study in the course curriculum of many renowned universities such as Harvard.

Decentralised kitchens are set up in locations where factors like unfavourable geographical terrain and improper road connectivity do not support the construction of large infrastructure. The units are run by women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) under the guidance and supervision of Akshaya Patra’s kitchen process and operations module.

With this large and hygienic system, Akshaya Patra also ensures that the nutritious meals suit the local palate. For example, the kitchens in North India prepare chapatis and in the South, rice. As this is the only source of nutrition for many of the organisation’s beneficiaries, it is cooked with ample ingredients to fulfill an individual’s one day nutrition requirement.

Akshaya Patra is continuously leveraging technology to cater to millions of children and it is important mentioning that it could not have been possible without the donors who care to volunteer and give their undivided contribution to the cause and to the vision of Zero hunger. If you also feel for the cause, do not hesitate to make a donation in honour of someone. So, this World Food Day, donate or pledge to donate and aid the endeavor to eradicate hunger.

Meals with a Motto - Akshaya Patra's Mission

Indian meals worldwide are known for their variety of spices and flavours. In fact, Indian food theory states that our food has six different flavours: bitter, sour, salty, astringent, spicy and sweet.

That’s precisely why Akshaya Patra’s kitchens smell of amazing spices and flavours in meals that are cooked in stringent hygiene conditions. For us, feeding more children doesn’t mean compromising on the quality. We believe every Indian child is entitled to a complete meal replete with all the six flavours of the Indian Food Theory.

We wish to provide the benefits of mid-day meals to 5 million children by the end of 2020. Akshaya Patra recently celebrated the serving of 2 Billion Meals while the count so far is 2.12 Billion Meals. We strongly believe that no child must go hungry and that each child has the right to receive nutritious meal every day for ensuring his/her physical and mental growth.

Benefits of Mid-Day Meals

Since the year 2000, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been running a feeding programme in active collaboration with the government. Today, it is the world’s largest NGO-run feeding programme serving over 1.6 million children across 13,210 in 26 locations of 11 Indian states. But when we started off, our ambition was not to become world’s largest, our mission was to feed the largest possible number of children. Currently, we are running the Joy of Giving festival which would conclude on October 8, 2016. You can join us in celebrating the joy by feeding the hungry.

What truly drive us are the various benefits that the children get through Mid-Day Meals. Here are some:

- Children are motivated to come to school due to a nutritious free of cost meal available in their nearest schools

- Parents are now sending girls to schools since one-time meal of a girl child is taken care of

- Children with an inclination for studies are encouraged to pursue vocations and have aspirations

- The Mid-Day Meal Programme also involves an overall development of children through formal education and teaching facilities

Meals with a Motto

Akshaya Patra has been able to transform the lives of millions of children in the last 16 years in its mission to provide ‘Unlimited Food for Education.’ The organisation is now on a mission to complete 5 billion meals by the end of 2020 – an ambition that it aims at achieving by channelising people and organisations.

Feeding the hungry is a noble cause but it needs a plan, a well thought-out framework and in our case, a lot of accountability. We don’t just encourage donations but also make sure that people know where their money is going and how exactly it is being used. We have a strong mechanism to ensure that people contribute with all their heart not just mechanically using technology. Stories about our NGO have reached almost all the states in their languages including our national language Hindi.

Apart from online donations, people may also contribute by registering for corporate volunteering or fundraising.  We urge you to join our mission. We promise to be transparent and determined to reach our targets of feeding the hungry.

Akshaya Patra Serving a Plateful of Smiles | World Smile Day 2016

A warm smile is the universal language of kindness. No one said it better than late William Arthur Ward, a renowned author, who rightly related smile with kindness. It’s the principle that has inspired several acts of philanthropy around the world.

Here’s a quick bite on World Smile Day! A commercial artist named Harvey Ball, who is known to have created the Smiley Face, initiated this day back in 1963 with a similar thought in mind. After his death in 2001, the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation created the slogan – Improving the world, one smile at a time. And smile, often the result of a moment of happiness, is a thing to be shared and spread around.

For many people around the world, just getting decent meals for one day is a matter of happiness. On World Smile Day, let’s pledge to donate to charity. If you have any non-profit fundraising ideas related to providing meals to school children, it will definitely help Akshaya Patra in spreading smiles.

Healthy Meals for Kids

For children, food is directly related to happiness. A child’s day consists of the games he plays and the food he eats. And so at Akshaya Patra, feeding hungry children is not only a duty but also a matter of happiness. Through our Mid-Day Meal Programme, we strive to spread smiles with each meal. Being the world’s largest not-for-profit Mid-Day Meal Programme, the organisation serves wholesome food to over 1.6 million children in India.

What truly drives our initiative, however, is the smiles of various children who are now motivated to study and come to school. That’s because we believe it’s also equally vital to ensure their happiness in future by making them independent and educated. We wish to spread the happiness of aspirations among these children by taking care of their meals in school so they could focus on their mental and physical growth.

In government schools in India, several children have a natural acclivity for academics. They have dreams and are often inspired to make a difference in the environment around them. One such student is Bhanupriya who studies in a Government Higher Primary School in Bengaluru. Talking about her aspirations, she says, “There are many people who are unwell. I wish to be a doctor and serve them. I would treat poor patients for free.” (Read her story at Stories of Children)

Bhanupriya, like her counterparts in private schools around the country, has ambitions of her own. Dearth of resources around her is in no way a hurdle to her dreams but she makes the best of her school education and studies diligently. With the motto ‘food for education,’ Akshaya Patra aims at ensuring future happiness of children.

Happiness is Feeding the Hungry

Akshaya Patra offers several opportunities and invites people to contribute for the cause of happiness. We strive to engage people in civic-minded activities through non-profit fundraising ideas. Fundraising is definitely one of the most effective ways to help a cause – you can help feed a child for an entire academic year by donating only Rs 950!

Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme is run with the support of the government and many individuals and corporates. With small contribution, you can engage in deeper acts of happiness and kindness – it may turn out to be more rewarding than you think as you join hands with an organisation that has made a huge difference since the year 2000.

We have found a way to spread happiness through meals, have you? Donate today!

Here’s an Easy Way to Fundraise with Akshaya Patra!

Approaching an issue with the right solution can have a powerful and positive impact. Akshaya Patra is no different. When we realised the importance of eliminating hunger among children, Mid-Day Meal Programme was implemented in the year 2000, which is currently operational in 13, 210 schools in 11 states across India. You too can get involved in feeding the hungry by fundraising with us!

Fundraising is simple and easy!

Fundraising generally involves many tasks - creating the campaign, communicating the cause, engaging people, raising funds, and all of this could be time-consuming. Akshaya Patra has made this entire process quick and easy on its website. Keeping simplicity in mind, Akshaya Patra allows registered users to create online fundraising campaigns on the website in only a few steps. You can start raising funds from work or home and also engage people from across the globe.

As a donor, we often underestimate the impact of a small amount. However, each fundraising campaign on Akshaya Patra is meaningful – the little and large charity donations we receive make a difference to many children’s lives. One of Akshaya Patra’s well-wishers created a ‘Live for Others’ charity fundraising campaign on the website and within four months, the campaign raised enough funds to feed 793 children for an entire year! To view more campaigns, visit active campaigns.

Akshaya Patra nurtures over 1.6 million school children every day with healthy mid-day meals and this undertaking promises a better future for our children. It is the Foundation’s mission to empower children, reduce school drop-out rate, and keep children healthy. As India progresses towards a hunger-free nation, you can support the programme along the way too with charity fundraising campaign for Akshaya Patra.

We urge you to get involved with Akshaya Patra in eliminating classroom hunger. Join the movement today and help us create awareness at a global level!

Akshaya Patra’s Magnanimous Journey in Karnataka

We have served 2 billion meals. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO based out of Bengaluru, celebrated the serving of 2 billion mid-day meals, in the presence of Honourable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Having been in the service of children for 16 years now, this NGO for children is here to make a difference in many young lives by crafting a healthy future for them. Thanks to the Government of India for its outpouring support towards Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme, there has been a steady rise in school attendance as well.

We are only a few days close to observing National Nutrition Week and while we will be discussing what ‘Nutrition’ means to us in our future blogs, let us brief you on how our journey of Mid-Day Meal Programme has panned out in Karnataka.

After Akshaya Patra stepped forward to provide mid-day meals to school children which would later go on to become the world’s largest NGO-run school lunch programme, the Indian government and many donors from across the globe have supported the initiative in many ways possible. Since its inception in 2000, Akshaya Patra has spread its wings across 11 states in the country feeding over 1.6 million children on every school day. This NGO for children believes that every child deserves a fair chance in the field of education and therefore, decided to fight classroom hunger through school lunch programme.

Our Journey of Unlimited Food for Education

• For Akshaya Patra, the journey began in 2000 with a feeding programme for 1,500 school children in Bengaluru

• The following year, the Government made it a right for every child studying in their schools to avail mid-day meals within the school premises

• In 2003, our Foundation became the first to take public-private partnership forward in social sector with the Government of Karnataka signing an MoU for MDM for children

• We went beyond Bengaluru. In 2004, we set up kitchens in Hubballi, Mangaluru and Mysore to feed more children

• In 2007, a second centralised kitchen was set up in Bengaluru in Vasanthpura, which currently feeds 1,01,541 children

• In 2012, Akshaya Patra served the billionth meal, one of the major milestones for this children’s NGO and in 2016, we crossed serving of 2 billion meals

Today, Akshaya Patra serves more than 5 lakh children in Karnataka alone. On this exceptional journey of defeating hunger among children, we urge you to join us and witness a changing society. If today’s children are fed nutritious meals and are ensured quality education, we will be creating a secure future not just for us but also for the next generation to come.

A famous proverb tells us that ‘little by little, little becomes a lot.’ To be able to feed 5 million children by 2020, we will need your help. You can donate an amount of your choice or you can sponsor a child by donating Rs 950. If changing a life makes you a proud citizen, then Akshaya Patra’s cause is for you!

Why Elimination of Hunger Is A Cause We Should All Invest In?

How we take our life on Earth for granted? We hear and witness hard-hitting headlines around the world, of thousands of lives affected every day. One such issue is hunger, a forlorn state where lives get defeated fighting for food. Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world with 795 million of the total world’s population sleeping hungry every day. And out of which 212 million belong to India itself.

At The Akshaya Patra Foundation, each stomach that goes empty is important. Our Mid-Day Meal Programme attempts to feed the hungry with a focus on children going to schools. Did you know that one of the most powerful economies of the world – India – is also home to one-third of world's hungry? As many as 3000 children are becoming victims of hunger and malnutrition every day. Is there a more pressing reason why you should contribute to eradicate hunger?

Is that my cause?

Many of you often think about social causes, to invest a share of your income for a cause you believe in. But then the whole process of making the effort seems challenging and you eventually abandon the thought.

When Akshaya Patra made the ambition of feeding 5 million children in the country by 2020, the organisation was confident that hunger was a cause worth investing in. While most of you think that the role of NGOs is to help the underprivileged groups, you somehow settle with the idea that this cause is not for you. However, Akshaya Patra knows the value of each coin, humbly acknowledging that we cannot run our school lunch programme without your help. The reason why we have several members, workers, volunteers and donors working tirelessly each day is because we all understand that elimination of hunger can safeguard the future of our children.

School children need your attention

Children are the future of the nation and to build a great future, we need to serve them in the present. Hunger prevents them from going to school, playing and learning. Hunger often strips the children off their precious childhood as they are compelled to earn their living.

So Akshaya Patra realised that the most vital demographic in the quest for feeding the hungry is children. Do you think so too? If yes, we urge you to sponsor a child throughout his academic year by investing Rs 750. The small act with a great thought creates a huge difference in their lives. When you choose to sponsor a child, you directly contribute in the making of a complete citizen. Of course, your donation is exempted from taxes.

Today hunger is a challenge before the literate and the healthy. We all need to conspire against hunger if we truly wish to create an equal and competitive society. Small deeds often bring big changes. Donate your share and take responsibility to eliminate hunger in India.

NGO in Ahmedabad and its Mid-Day Meal

A land of legendary tales and a region with over 60 rivers, Gujarat is one of the states that Akshaya Patra has been able to connect with to implement a very promising Mid-Day Meal Programme. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO for children, which implemented the mid-day meal scheme in 2007 in Gujarat, aims to curb classroom hunger among government school children in India by providing freshly cooked meals for lunch. The Bengaluru-based organisation is set up as an NGO in Ahmedabad and many other cities and also has the permit to receive tax deductible donation.

In Gujarat alone, Akshaya Patra has set up three state-of-the-art kitchen facilities which distribute mid-day meals to over 400,158 school children. Quality being one of the highest priorities for Akshaya Patra, it has led the kitchens in the state to receive ISO certification. Through financial aid from donors and Government of Gujarat, Akshaya Patra has been able to stabilise its operations in all the three locations: Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat.

Here is Vikas Solanki’s story that could be synonymous to many other children’s scenario. Vikas, who lives near Vadodara is a young boy with dreams of becoming a Civil Engineer to work on construction projects. He is hopeful about his aspirations because his education is now a guarantee. We have observed that the children who come from an economically disadvantaged background, the only source of their survival is food. Ever since Akshaya Patra has stepped forward to feed hot and nutritious meals to millions of children in India, children's education has been a guarantee. Vikas and his sisters have been Akshaya Patra’s beneficiaries and the mid-day meal programme reduces the burden on this family.

In 2014, when the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Smt. Anandiben Patel inaugurated a fully-automated kitchen in Ahmedabad, she said, “If we can provide quality food to children through mid-day meals, we can drastically decrease the dropout ratio.” In 2010, Forbes Magazine rated Ahmedabad as the third fastest growing city in the world. However, in a study done by a chief economist at the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in 2011, states that Gujarat has high levels of hunger while it also boasts of high income. Such rankings not only indicate economic progress but also demand for stability.

Akshaya Patra, NGO for Children spreads across 10 states of India, is working towards a hunger-free nation especially among school children. Although there are many initiatives that The Foundation is proud of, the main focus continues to be hunger relief among school goers through nutritious mid-day meals every day! To ensure that a child is not deprived of education due to hunger, you can contribute Rs. 750 which feeds a child for an entire year! By donating, you can get your benefits too. When you donate Rs. 500 and over to Akshaya Patra, it will be considered as tax deductible donation.

Making a Difference in Assam and Rest of India

This year, Akshaya Patra completes 16 years of its extensive journey aimed to feed the hungry children in India. In 2013, we met Durga Prasad—one of the students in Guwahati, Assam, who suffered from anorexia and malnourishment before he was enrolled in school. His teachers reported that in only a couple of years, Durga’s health had significantly improved after Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal in Assam began to benefit his life.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in Assam and nine other states in India, has implemented Mid-Day Meal Scheme in many government schools to omit classroom hunger in India. In Assam particularly, the State Government invited Akshaya Patra to implement mid-day meal programme to reduce dropout rates and eliminate child labour in the state. In 2010, a centralised kitchen was set up in Guwahati—Assam’s largest city, which now serves over 53,000 children every day.

Since 2000, it has been the organisation’s vision that no child in India should be deprived of education due to hunger and envisages to feed 5 million children by 2020. One of the most important aspects of the organisation which has led the programme towards achievements is Compassion—when His Divine Grace AC Bhakivedanta Swami Prabhupada saw a group of children fighting with street dogs over scraps of food and decided that no child should go hungry in India.

Here are some of the progresses made by Akshaya Patra in the last 16 years:

• From 1500 school children in Bengaluru to over 1.5 million beneficiaries across 10 states in India
• Expanded its feeding initiative from mid-day meals to Anganwadi feeding, old-age homes, disaster relief and many more
• Upgraded the kitchen equipment to high-tech sustainable resources such as 304 grade stainless steel
• Stretched its presence towards different parts of the globe: the USA and UK

Certainly, The Foundation’s method to reach millions of children over the years has seen great success. With successful partnership with Central Government and State Governments, the Foundation has been able to make a massive difference in many children’s lives who are now assured of education and good health. It is due to adapting sustainable technology and resources and maintaining transparency in all its activities that it has been possible for Akshaya Patra to reach millions of children every day. More than 12 of Akshaya Patra’s kitchens have received ISO certification for they are a beacon of quality.

To add to its successes, Akshaya Patra Foundation won the prestigious Nikkei Asia Prize 2016 for its outstanding achievements in ‘Economic and Business Innovation’ category and for contributing towards a better future for Asia. So far, the mid-day meal programme has expanded from 1500 children to over 1.5 million children making it the world’s largest NGO -run Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

To end the lingering hunger among children, it costs Rs. 750 to feed a child for an entire year. You can get involved too by making this contribution and ensuring children in India do not go hungry.

Being Responsible: The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Every minute is used seemingly well at The Akshaya Patra Foundation—an NGO in India which believes that no child should be deprived of education due to hunger. Since its inception, the organisation has endeavoured to end classroom hunger through mid-day meal programme, thus encouraging millions of children to attend school regularly. As a role of an NGO, it is now Akshaya Patra’s mission to feed 5 million children by 2020. It becomes extremely important to have donation for NGO and work towards our mission.

At The Akshaya Patra Foundation, it is a promise kept to feed a wholesome meal to the underserved children across many states. With an ever-growing dedication, The Foundation has been feeding nutritious meals to more than 1.5 million children in India every day. With generous support from the Government of India and State Governments and individuals’ donation for NGO, the Akshaya Patra vessel has been inexhaustible.

Feeding children has been The Foundation’s core function among many others. As a role of an NGO that implements mid-day meal programme, we started with five government schools in Bengaluru, feeding 1500 children. That was 15 years ago!  The overwhelming response from schools explained the need of the programme. Today, more than 11,000 schools are benefitting from this programme. The State Governments have partnered with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to implement the Mid-Day Meal Programme in order to increase the number of children they reach out to. This partnership has been instrumental in improving the quality and reach of the programme.

While it is an everyday task to serve millions of children, the organisation ensures quality in food and follows hygiene instructions strictly. Before and after the food is prepared, all the vessels in the kitchen are sanitised, fresh food is packed in steel containers and are delivered to schools at lunch time. During the entire process, the focus of Akshaya Patra continues to be children and their satisfaction in every mid-day meal—without a wholesome meal, it becomes a challenge for a child to sit in a classroom and learn. The Foundation ensures that meals contain sufficient nutrients and protein along with taste. An impact study by AC Nielsen in 2010 showed that mid-day meals helped in increasing school attendance, socialisation among children, and improvement in nutritional status and decrease in drop-out rate.

Apart from working towards countering hunger and malnutrition in school children, Akshaya Patra also has other feeding initiatives: Feeding Anganwadi children and women, expecting and lactating mothers, runaway children, residents at old-age homes, the homeless and many more. When the volume of work is high, so is the support. Akshaya Patra believes in being transparent to maintain trust—every year an Annual Report is published which discloses financial audits, number of beneficiaries, government grants and donations received and growth over the last years.

At The Akshaya Patra Foundation – an NGO in India, the unlimited food for education is transforming many young lives. The organisation has taken the responsibility of many children to safeguard them from hunger and lack of education—because every child has the right to live.

Challenges in Implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme

To retain a hungry child in the classroom is a major problem faced by the teachers and parents in government schools. A hungry student cannot learn or understand what is being taught in the class. Hunger causes impaired mental growth, physical growth and even reduces the attention and concentration of children.

Poverty and malnutrition among students, hailing from low income families have become a major concern in India.  As a result, the Mid-Day Meal Programme was launched to universalise primary education, increase enrolment rates, reduce dropout rates as well as improve the nutritional status of students in primary classes.

Akshaya Patra implements the mid-day meal programme in partnership with the Union Government and State Governments. The organisation reaches out to 1.5 million children a day and is the largest school lunch programme in the world.

Let us see some of the challenges Akshaya Patra has to face in implementing the mid-day meal scheme.

• Providing the right quantity of food to each and every student with the right amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals so that beneficiaries are not devoid of any essential nutrient.
• Reaching out to places where road connectivity is not smooth especially in rural areas. 
• Employing enough man power, so that meals can be prepared in vast quantities.   
• Having variety in the menu. Children would savour the meals only if different varieties of curry are served each day with rice and roti.

In spite of all the challenges, Akshaya Patra reaches out to its 1.5 million children with all efficiency and competency. Not even a single day the organisation has missed to deliver a meal as the organisation understands that this could be the only meal for many of its beneficiaries.

Hunger is really a challenge but to retain a hungry child in the classroom is more challenging. Hunger is an obstacle that hinders the child’s learning process.

Child hunger is a social issue that together we can solve. So let us donate to Akshaya Patra. It takes just Rs. 750 to feed a child for a year! Every donation of Rs. 500 or above made to Akshaya Patra is eligible for 100% tax exemption under section 35 AC or 50% tax exemption under Section 80 G of the Indian Income Tax.

Let us donate to Akshaya Patra and help serve children to end class room hunger.

Fuelling The Dreams of Children

The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s initiative ‘Giving Every Dream a Chance’ aims to provide mentorship programme for its mid-day meal beneficiaries. The pilot project has been successful in conducting mentorship programme for three Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal beneficiaries which eventually helped them recognize their dreams and polish their skills.

Read more at: blog.akshayapatra.org/fuelling-the-dreams-of-children

How the Adoption of Kaizen is Helping Akshaya Patra

The fact that Akshaya Patra’s Hubballi kitchen featured in the NGCs Mega Kitchens of India alongside the likes of TajSATS Air Catering Ltd., speaks volumes about its magnanimity. This particular kitchen has the capacity to prepare meals for over 200,000 children in approximately four hours. And this, mind you, is just one of the 22 centralised kitchens the Foundation operates across India … feeding over 1.5 million children as a part of the Mid-day Meal Programme in 11,360 schools every single day.

If Akshaya Patra has been able to pull off this task, it’s largely because of the tremendous efforts put in by each of the stakeholder involved, right from its employees to donors. Also playing a crucial role in its success is the ability to adapt and evolve. The organisation has adopted kaizen wherever possible with the aim to achieve overall excellence.

What is Kaizen All About?

In Japanese, kaizen means improvement or simply put, changing for better. The concept has become popular world over as one of the key attributes of an organisation’s long-term strategy. It is based on the belief that several small changes—over the course of time—help in achieving big results.

Akshaya Patra’s Kaizen Initiatives

Before Kaizen Technique

After kaizen Technique

Kaizen techniques have been put to use in various sectors, including government, health care, banking, and even NGOs. In fact, at Akshaya Patra, kaizens are adopted at various levels of operations to facilitate efficient use of resources, make the task cost effective, save time, and produce better results. When you serve mid-day meals to over 1.5 million children, it goes without saying that it’s imperative that your kitchen technology is at its efficient best—kaizens help Akshaya Patra pull off the task.

As a part of kaizen initiative, Akshaya Patra's Hubballi and Vasanthapura kitchens have started cooking rice with starch instead of draining it. In what can be considered an apt example of kaizen for effective use of resources, this helps these kitchens save around 11,000 and 6,000 litres of water respectively.

As for saving time, the preparation time for a single batch of rice which was 20 – 22 minutes before this kaizen method was implemented, has now been reduced to 15 – 19 minutes. Thus, 30 – 40 minutes are saved every day. Now half an hour may not seem like a lot of time, but consider the fact that mid-day meals are prepared in four hours of so, and you realise how important these 30 – 40 minutes are.

It’s also worth noting that the retention of starch adds to the nutritional content of the rice.

Kaizen initiatives have helped Akshaya Patra make the most of resources at its disposal elsewhere as well. In Guwahati, Assam, for instance, route analysis has helped in reducing the distance covered and diesel consumed by delivery vans, thus helping in saving time and making efficient use of resources.

Simple things like a design modification as a part of which the flat bottom of a silo at Surat kitchen was turned into conical bottom, replacing plastic wipers with durable wipers made of stainless steel, or—for that matter—introducing cauldrons with safety locks has helped Akshaya Patra kitchens make the task of preparing and delivering mid-day meals much more effective.

Like we mentioned earlier, kaizen is all about tweaking several small things to bring about a big overall change and Akshaya Patra has several examples of such initiatives. Not surprising then, is the fact that the Foundation has scaled up to feed over 1.5 million children across ten states since its inception and plans to reach 5 million children by 2020.

Now, that’s a goal that won’t be possible with kaizens alone. Other stakeholders will also have to pitch in. Regardless of whether you are an individual or organisation, one simple way to help is to donate to the NGO. In doing so, you will ensure that Akshaya Patra reaches more children … nurtures more dreams.

Fighting Child Hunger and Improving Education

Food is one of the essentials needed to survive on this earth. However, all of us are not lucky enough to receive a sufficient supply due to many reasons.  It is shocking to know that about 870 million people in the world struggle for a square meal every day due to extreme poverty.

When we talk about hunger children always come at the forefront as they are the worst affected. Lack of food or nutrition during the early stages of growth can lead to several health problems and sometimes even to death. Here are some statistics on children and hunger:

• Malnutrition kills about 3.1 million children every year
• About 100 million children (one out of six) in developing countries fall below the recommended weight
• One in four children in the world is stunted
• About 66 million primary school children go hungry  to school 

Measures have been taken to bring these numbers down and works by The World Food Programme (WFP), the largest anti-hunger agency of the UN in the world, have been quite inspiring. Interestingly, the agency feeds 80 million people in 75 countries every year.

From the past 54 years, the agency has been trying constantly to eliminate hunger and provide children an opportunity to attend school.  For this purpose, WFP supplies nutritious school meals to over 20 million children across the world.

The initiative has helped bring children back to school and bring hopes in millions of families. These meals, in a way, have also provided underprivileged children all the nutrition needed for growth.  The school meal programme has also given an opportunity to utilise the local resources and increase their demand.

Who else help school children in India - an overview:

• The Akshaya Patra Foundation: The NGO, at present feeds freshly cooked nutritious mid-day meals to over 1.4 million school children in 10 states.

• Annamrita:  The NGO feeds 1.2 million meals in eight states in India.

• Nanhi Kali:  The NGO  helps provide education to girls

• Smile Foundation: is dedicated to empower underprivileged children, youth and women. 

A 2013 report on school feeding programmes across 169 countries released by the World Food Project ranked India 12^th among lower middle income countries. During that time, India was feeding 114 million school children every day.

Some of the organisations which have helped improve lives of school children in India include:

These organisations have helped feed the hungry, provide education and empowerment and brought hope to millions of school children. However, there is a long way to go in eliminating classroom hunger altogether or providing education to all.

But, it is very much achievable. Just keep the good works going and soon ‘child hunger is gone’ will be a beautiful truth.