An Ideal Mid-Day Meal for School Children

An estimate from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that nearly 1.2 billion people in the world are poor.  Poverty is a huge issue in India too. The Indian economy is growing fast, but the nation is still to wipe out poverty completely from its soil. Poverty has a huge impact on people’s lives, especially for children. With no income to even have a basic meal a day children are forced to work to help supplement the family income. Thousands of children in the country miss out their education to support their family. Interestingly, there has been an improvement in this phenomenon since 2000, when The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an initiative founded with the motive that ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’ came into existence.  Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal scheme which was kicked off with just 1,500 school children, at present, covers over 1.4 million Government school students in India.

This NGO in India, through all these years, has been working hard to ensure that underserved school children get all the calories, proteins, minerals and vitamins needed to excel in studies and succeed in life. Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal provides all the necessary nutrition needed for a healthy growth in childhood.

The organisation owes a large part of its success to its donors. The mission of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, now, is to reach out to 5 million children by the year 2020.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s citizens. Your contribution can help us build a healthy and smart society. To support out the programme, join us and give your contribution to feed more children and to remove hunger among children.

To know more how you can be part of Akshaya Patra, visit Get Involve.

Communications, Awards and Akshaya Patra

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, as it expands and grows needs to develop itself as a good storyteller. Why you may ask? The answer is Akshaya Patra is an NGO working with many stakeholders. Trustees, advisors, donors, philanthropists, corporates, well-wishers, Government of India and the State Governments, general public, teachers and most important children are parts of what make Akshaya Patra. The onus to share and build trust, to get support by being transparent about the organisation lies with the organisation. Keeping up with new trends and making content and creative exciting have brought good results besides generating awareness. It has won accolades and awards for the Akshaya Patra.

Recently The Akshaya Patra Foundation won Silver in the Summit Creative Awards (SCA) 2015 for its Annual Report 2013-14. It’s for the third consecutive time Akshaya Patra has won silver. Moreover this year Akshaya Patra received Gold for a film called ‘The Possibilities’ which projects the essence and importance of the core activity of the organisation at SCA. The award is to honour small and medium sized agencies for their contributions to advertising.

The entries are judged by experts who evaluated one against others in their category. This makes it a though competition, where the winner truly stands out.

This award is one of the achievements The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been honoured with. Without good communication principles and plan it’s not achievable. The idea is to use facts and figures as the real content accentuated by creative presentation that makes it appealing to the audience.

As the organisation strives hard to expand and feed more children, the need to educate and inform the people is of utmost importance to garner support to sustain and achieve its goal. The determination and commitment to generate healthy communication have resulted in major achievements besides bringing the desired intent of bringing awareness and the support needed for Akshaya Patra to keep working towards its mission of feeding 5 million children by 2020.

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Feeding the future of India

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an Indian NGO implementing the Central Mid-Day Meal Scheme across Government schools. It was initiated in the year 2000 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Initially it began feeding in five Government schools of the Bengaluru city. Witnessing the overwhelming response for the need of the programme, Akshaya Patra strategically began expanding its operations to other parts of the state and eventually to other states of India. Currently, Akshaya Patra is feeding Government school children of 24 locations across 10 states namely: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. In total, Akshaya Patra feeds more than 1.4 million children every day across the country.

These beneficiaries come from humble background but bring with them high aspirations. They are determined enough to not let their unfavourable socio-economic status come as a hurdle when it is the question of pursuing their dreams. At Akshaya Patra, each meal has its own unique story. Hence, the NGO ensures that it provides nutritious, hygienic and tasty food on each day. It also designs its menu based on the location to cater to the local palate. For example: the menu of Akshaya Patra kitchen at Karnataka will cater to South Indian palate whereas the menu item of Akshaya Patra Gujarat will cater to North Indian palate.

Over the years of implementation of mid-day meal, the Government of India along with partner NGOs has witnessed positive impact on the growth, development and regularity to school among children. Studies have also brought to fore that there has been increase in enrolment and attendance, also decreasing the rate of dropout. Mid-Day Meal Scheme has shown significant results in countering classroom hunger among children. These positive alterations during the growth years of children give them the confidence to lead a self-sustaining life in the future. It instils in them the determination and certainty of being able to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty, hunger and illiteracy.

Join Akshaya Patra in feeding the future of India and creating sustainable assets.

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Impact of mid-day meal on growing children

Over the years, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme has proved itself to be a supporting pillar in the overall development of children even at the grass root level of the society. The Scheme that was initiated by Government of India is being implemented by various Non-Governmental Organisations too. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one among the various NGOs. Akshaya Patra began providing school lunch at five Government schools in Bengaluru city of Karnataka in 2000. This was even before the official central mandate in 2003 by the Government of India to provide free cooked mid-day meal at all Government schools. But after the mandate was passed, Akshaya Patra partnered with the Government of India in providing cooked meals at schools. Since then, Akshaya Patra has been working in a Public-Private Partnership model to achieve the six objectives of the Central Mid-Day Meal Scheme i.e.:

• Eliminating classroom hunger
• Increasing school enrolment
• Increasing school attendance
• Improving socialization among castes 
• Addressing malnutrition, and
• Women empowerment

During the course of implementing the mid-day meal programme for 15 years now, Akshaya Patra has also conducted impact studies of the programme in association with noted research organisations. The Akshaya Patra kitchen process and operations has also become a part of prestigious institutes like Harvard Business School. Below are mention of few impact studies that clearly showcase the significance and potential of the mid-day meal programme in eliminating classroom hunger, improving child health and also increasing enrolment and concentration of children.

• ‘Assessment of Mid-Day Meal Programme In 8 States’ by Sigma Research and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
• ‘Impact Assessment Study Report of The Akshaya Patra Foundation - HPCL Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects (2012-13)’ by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)
• ‘Report on Measuring the Impact of Mid- Day-Meal on Child Growth’ by Department of Public Health Manipal University
• ‘Evaluation of the Mid-Day Meal Programme – June 2012’ by Kusuma Trust U.K.
• ‘Impact study 2012’ by Edumedia
• ‘Impact Assessment of The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s Mid-Day Meal Programme 2010’ by A.C. Nielsen
• ‘Akshaya Patra: Feeding India's School Children’ by Harvard business school

A click on Akshaya Patra Impact Studies will take you to the details of each of the above mentioned studies. To support Akshaya Patra, donate online to charity.

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Akshaya Patra wishes a very Happy Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is observed as a day to honour and respect our mothers, the essence of motherhood and the maternal bond itself. It began as a celebration in the United States way back in early 20th century.

Eventually, it is seen to be celebrated cross the globe. Mother’s Day is celebrated annually across many countries. However the dates of celebration differ from country to country. March and May are the most common months of celebrating Mother’s Day. In India, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year. The significance of celebrating Mother’s Day may range from scriptural references to the general understanding of honouring our mother and motherhood. This year 10th of May will be celebrated as Mother’s Day.

Traits like care, love, nurture, nourish, patience comes naturally to a mother. Mothers worldwide go to any extent to provide the best for their child be it food, education, or day-to-day learning.  It is seen that mothers across the world thrive to provide the most nutritious and hygienic food to the child. Home-made food or mom-cooked food is something we all look forward to and relish wholeheartedly. Even if the child is a fussy eater the mother will bring in her most innovative cooking tactics to make sure that nutrition intake is taken care of. 

Taking inspiration from mothers care and love The Akshaya Patra Foundation ensures that mid-day meal is cooked with love. The women employees at the kitchen are mothers of children too and each of them understands the importance of clean, hygienic and nutritious meal in the growth of a child. Be it centralised kitchen or decentralised, all women worker shares the same sentiment of motherhood in preparing millions of mid-day meals each day. A recent video of Akshaya Patra ‘Morsel of Love’ illustrates the involvement of women employees in the kitchen in preparation of mid-day meal. Akshaya Patra salutes all the women employees and wishes all of them and all the mothers across the world a very happy Mother’s Day.

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Akshaya Patra’s message through three short films

Akshaya Patra has captured the essence of its mid-day meal programme through three inspirational short films.

In a ‘Morsel of Love’, viewers can understand how every day the tasty, healthy food from The Akshaya Patra Foundation is carefully prepared across the country by the cooks with as much love as a mother has when preparing food for her child.

In ‘What can you get for Rs. 750?’ the message that is conveyed that while many things may or may not be bought for an amount like Rs. 750, The Akshaya Patra Foundation is able to feed one child for an entire year with an amount like that. It puts into perspective that though to many of us Rs. 750 is not a large amount, to a child it can mean healthy food and education for one year.

In ‘The Possibilities’ featuring the background track by famous musician A.R Rahman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation highlights the several negative possibilities that a child’s life can take without the proper opportunities and guidance. However with the right help a child can succeed in his life and escape these dreadful possibilities.

These videos drive home the message of what The Akshaya Patra Foundation is trying to achieve through its mid-day meal programme, and its efforts to eliminate classroom hunger in India.

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Akshaya Patra’s Surat kitchen inaugurated

Akshaya Patra’s Surat kitchen was inaugurated on 15th February 2015 by Chielf Minister of Gujarat, Anandiben Patel. Along with her was Nanubhai Vanani, Minister of State (Primary, Secondary & Adult) and several other Government officials and dignitaries from the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

This centralised kitchen by The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been sponsored by the SMC and ONGC. This highly mechanised kitchen has replaced the interim kitchen running in Surat from June 2012-14. The kitchen is equipped with a roti making machine, steam generation facility for cooking, seven stage rice cleaning machine, vegetable cutting machine and much more. The kitchen also has 41 customised meal delivery vehicles to carry the Akshaya Patra food to over 1.6 lakh children in the beneficiary schools.

When arriving at the Akshaya Patra kitchen in Surat, Anandiben Patel was greeted by the Vice Chairman of Akshaya Patra, Chanchalapathi Dasa. She inaugurated the kitchen by cutting the ribbon and taking part in the lighting of the lamp ceremony. The event included a kitchen tour, and flagging off the meal delivery vans.

After felicitating the donors of the kitchen Anandiben Patel addressed the media on the new Akshaya Patra kitchen. She and the other dignitaries also took part in serving the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal to some beneficiary students.

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Akshaya Patra Chairman Speaks at Development Dialogue 2015

Chairman of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Madhu Pandit Dasa, spoke at the Development Dialogues 2015 conference held at the Deshpande Foundation in Hubli on 7th and 8th of February. The theme followed for the conference this year was ‘Scaling by Proving’.

The speakers of the conference tried to showcase how by ‘Failing Small, Failing Early, Failing Fast’, organisations can learn from their errors, take adjustments mid-way in their enterprise, form networks and put their processes in place that will help their organisations scale up quickly.

The conference had over 300 delegates including Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2014. In fact Madhu Pandit Dasa and the Akshaya Patra team had the opportunity to spend time with Mr. Satyarthi to discuss the mid-day meal programme and exchange ideas.

Madhu Pandit Dasa of Akshaya Patra shared the panel with Narayana Murthy from Infosys and Jeffrey L Bradach from the Bridgespan Group. The moderator of the panel discussion was Kasturi Rangan of Harvard Business School, USA.

Speaking on the panel Madhu Pandit Dasa responded to Narayana Murthy’s statement on the role of corporate partnership in initiating competition saying, “Currently Akshaya Patra has no competitor, but encouragement and the sharing of information will help others take up social entrepreneurship. Being a non-profit set-up, we are ready to pass on our functioning model.

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Infosys and Tata Group donate grant to Akshaya Patra

The charitable wings of Infosys (The Infosys Foundation) and the Tata Group (the Jamsetji Tata Trust) will be generously donating over Rs. 200 crore to The Akshaya Patra Foundation. The Infosys Foundation will be donating Rs. 127 crore to Akshaya Patra to help the Foundation construct and operate three new kitchens. In addition to this Infosys will be donating Rs. 20 crore for the corpus.

The Jamsetji Tata Trust will be donating Rs. 55 crore to Akshaya Patra to help the Foundation continue to improve its food safety management systems, and purchase the latest technology to achieve this.

The grant that Akshaya Patra receives from Infosys will be used to build a kitchen in Jodhpur that will feed up to 50,000 children a day, and another one at Hyderabad that will provide the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal to 100,000 children a day. Aside from this Infosys will also cover the operational costs of the kitchens in Hyderabad, Jodhpur and Mysore, and pay the costs for clean drinking water and mid-day meals to 1.5 lakh children in the state of Rajasthan. To top this off the grant gave Akshaya Patra the ability to adopt the closed-vessel cooking method that helps retain the fresh aroma of the food.

The Jamsetji Tata Trust will aid The Akshaya Patra Foundation by covering the expenses of hiring food safety inspectors in all the kitchens, and supporting the costs of the upcoming food labs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Lucknow.

This generous support from these organisations will surely help The Akshaya Patra Foundation make strong strides in its fight to eliminate classroom hunger.

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Blog for change!

Not everyone is a born leader. Not everyone can go out there and fight battles to make change. But maybe you can use your words to make a difference in a child’s life. If you have something to say, some thoughts to share on how to eliminate classroom hunger in India, then this blogging contest is for you.

In collaboration with BlogAdda, The Akshaya Patra Foundation is running a blogging contest over four weeks ending on 14th December, 2014. The theme of the contest is ‘Tell us how you think we can eliminate classroom hunger. Imagine what India would be like if no child goes hungry and an entire generation is educated! Blog about it and make a difference with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.’

Each blog post must be a minimum of 300 words, and must be submitted by midnight of 14th December. Each blogger can submit a maximum of five entries. Are you wondering how participating in this contest will help you change the world? Well, for every blog entry BlogAdda will feed one Akshaya Patra beneficiary for an entire year!

Aside from this, The Akshaya Patra Foundation will choose the top five blog entries which will be featured as part of an exclusive series on the Akshaya Patra official blog, AND promoted via social media.

It doesn’t get better than this! Register now!

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Akshaya Patra begins Anganwadi feeding programme in Agra

 The Akshaya Patra Foundation inaugurated the Agra branch of its Anganwadi feeding programme on 14 October, 2014. The undertaking was flagged off by the Chief Guest District Magistrate of Agra, Pankaj Kumar; the Chief Development officer Paliwal N.K.; District Programme Officer and other dignitaries.

Akshaya Patra wins Gold at the 44th International Creativity Awards

 

The Akshaya Patra Foundation has won yet another coveted award for its Annual Report 2012-13.  The Foundation won the Gold award in the 44th Creativity International Print & Packaging Design Awards. Competing against thousands of entries sent in from over 32 countries and 22 U.S. states, this is indeed a proud moment for The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

Out of these thousands of entries fewer than 800 were chosen to be assessed by the judges. From this only 2/3rd were selected for an award. Of which 12 per cent of the entries, including Akshaya Patra, were chosen for the Gold award. These winners were those ten per cent of the scores not eligible for a platinum, but with an average score above 5.5. The design collateral is judged based on either their quality of art or advertising impact, or both.

The judges for this esteemed event are chosen every year on a rotational basis. These judges comprise of experts in the field of advertising and graphic design, who will be able to adequately analyse the challenges and triumphs of the design collateral. To maintain a fair judging environment, the panel of judges is selected from different regions, professional specialisations and agencies.

The purpose behind these awards is to ‘award and recognise great design from around the world.’ The annual report of The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been found to be worthy of this privilege, and is a great validation of the creativity, dedication to progress and evolutionary nature of the organisation.

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Driven to be a Doctor

Kalpana Malik may be just ten years old, but she already knows what she wants to be when she grows up. Her dream is to be a doctor someday. While that might seem like a common, frivolous ambition for a young child, Kalpana knows exactly why she wants to take up this noble profession.

"I would like to be a doctor because there is insufficiency of doctors to serve the patients," she says with confidence.

A standard V girl in the Vijayanagar Project Primary School in Puri, she is the youngest of four sisters. Her father is employed as a beach photographer and her mother takes care of the home.

Kalpana is a beneficiary of mid-day meals provided by The Akshaya Patra Foundation. With her characteristic exuberance she expresses her opinion about the food saying, “I love the food, and it’s always fresh and on time!"

Kalpana is whole-heartedly involved in the extra-curricular activities of her school, and especially excels in singing and dancing. She also loves to attend her classes and enjoys learning English in particular.

According to the teachers of Kalpana’s school, the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal is a predominant factor in inspiring children to enrol in school and attend classes regularly. Watching the energy and vibrancy that Kalpana exudes in her conversation and behaviour, we are thrilled to see the positive impact that the healthy meals have on her.

These beneficiaries of Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal like Kalpana inspire us with their optimism, dreams and potential, and keep us striving to carry them through to success.

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President Pranab Mukherjee supports Akshaya Patra

 

In a thrilling development, the Honourable President of India, Pranab Mukherjee met with Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman and Chanchalapati Dasa, Vice-Chairman of The Akshaya Patra Foundation recently. In his discussions with the President, Madhu Pandit Dasa outlined the work and values of the Foundation.

The President in turn expressed his support and appreciation of the work undertaken by The Akshaya Patra Foundation. He expressed his best wishes to the organisation and hope that Akshaya Patra will succeed in its mission of eliminating classroom hunger, and enabling education throughout the country.

Madhu Pandit Dasa responded to the heartfelt support for The Akshaya Patra Foundation from the President of India saying, "We are very honoured to receive the support of The Honourable President, Sri Pranab Mukherjee. This is very crucial for us as we stride to scale-up to meet our mission of reaching five million children by 2020."

 The Akshaya Patra Foundation which started its journey in the year 2000 feeding just 1500 children across five schools, today feeds over 1.4 million children across 10,661 Government and Government aided schools, in 23 locations and 10 states of India.  With a vision that ‘no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger,’ Akshaya Patra constantly looks to the future to scale up its operations and provide food for education to every child in need. The organisation recently opened up two large-scale, highly mechanised, centralised kitchens; one at Cuttack, and the other at Ahmedabad.

If you would like to support The Akshaya Patra Foundation in its work to eliminate classroom hunger, click to donate online.

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Providing support through adversity

There are many children who cannot dream of attending school, not just because of they are underserved in terms of poverty, but also in terms of enabling facilities. Young Bhanuchander from Telangana is just one of the thousands of children in India suffering from Polio, which makes it impossible for him to walk.

His grandmother, who he calls Ammamma has taken care of Bhanu since he was born. Despite the fact that she suffers from asthma, Ammamma is committed to pushing Bhanu’s wheel chair to the school and back every day.

However there are days when she is too ill or weak to push Bhanu’s wheel chair to school, and he has to miss school. Bhanu’s uncle works as a daily wage earner, an uncertain occupation that on some days yields no money. On days when he does not manage to earn any income the family has to sleep on an empty stomach.

Bhanu especially because of his tender young age and physical ailments requires a steady supply of nutritious food to develop healthily. At school he is a beneficiary of the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal, which has proved to be a blessing for this small family. By eating the tasty, nutritious food every day, even Bhanu’s teachers have faith that he, like many others in the school, will be able to grow healthy and overcome the challenges they face.

Ammamma expresses her relief that Bhanu can reply on the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal saying, “My grandson is happy to go to school since he gets hot food, snacks and fruits also. I can't afford any of these constantly.” Aside from providing children like Bhanu healthy food to combat malnutrition, it also brings Akshaya Patra pleasure to help ease the burden from struggling, devoted family members like Bhanu’s  Ammamma.

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An all-round healthy meal

Consuming a balanced diet is crucial for the healthy functioning of the human body. This is especially true for young children, whose bodies require the right amounts of nutrients and energy to develop both physically and mentally, and keep up with the rigour of childhood activity. The Akshaya Patra Foundation knows how vital the right amount of nutrients are to growing children and therefore adheres to the guidelines specified by the Government of India on the mid-day meal programme.

Vitamins and minerals are needed for the proper mental and cognitive development of these young children. In a time when their bodies are vulnerable, they rely on these nutrients to develop to their best potential. The Akshaya Patra Foundation provides these vitamins and minerals through beetroot, cabbage and carrot that are featured regularly in the mid-day meal.

Growing children should be starved of neither food nor energy. That’s why Akshaya Patra makes sure the children have both by providing them with sufficient carbohydrates, which help store energy in the body, through an adequate supply of rice in South India and Roti in North India to suit the local palate.

Proteins help in the physical development of the body, which makes them a crucial component in the diet of growing children. Akshaya Patra includes proteins in the mid-day meal through ingredients like spinach, potato, lentils and beans, which are frequently used in the menu.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation works to provide food for education, and combat the issue of classroom hunger in India. Through the mid-day meal, the beneficiaries of the programme have shown improved concentration, retention and energy, better socialization skills and a much higher drive to enroll in school. By ensuring that each meal is tasty, healthy and filling, The Akshaya Patra Foundation everyday comes closer to fulfilling its vision that no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.

Donation process suited to your needs

Making a donation to The Akshaya Patra Foundation for the cause of food for education is a very simple process. All you need to know is how much you would like to donate, whether you are donating in cash or kind, and the reason for your donation.

Finding Strength in Unity

Jitu Pradhan studies in the fifth standard at the Sechan Bihar Primary School, Bhudan Nagar, Puri Municipality. According to him, his sister Buli Pradhan, is his best friend. Since Buli studies in the seventh standard of the same school, the two get to spend a great deal of time with each other, looking after each other and their home in Puri.

Akshaya Patra enters the North East

When The Akshaya Patra Foundation is choosing the location it should start its next kitchen in, it takes many different details into account. But one of the most important things the organisation analyses is the vital need for a new kitchen to be set up in that area.

Assam was one location that definitely needed the assistance that The Akshaya Patra Foundation could provide through the mid-day meal scheme. The state has been ravaged in the past by natural disasters which have caused many people to lose their homes, savings and security. There are thousands of children all over the state who have been unable to attend school in the face of driving concerns like food and shelter for the day.

Knowing how dire the situation is, the Government of Assam invited The Akshaya Patra Foundation to open a kitchen in their state. The free, nutritious and tasty mid-day meal was to provide an incentive for children to attend classes, and therefore increase school enrolment, attendance, and concentration while reducing dropout rates.

Akshaya Patra eagerly accepted this invitation from the Assam State Government and quickly put the wheels in motion to start their first kitchen in Assam, in Guwahati. However with the damages caused by the natural disasters in the region, there is limited infrastructure in terms of drinking water, drainage facilities and supply of electricity available. The Akshaya Patra Foundation therefore set up a reverse osmosis plant to provide clean drinking water, constructed adequate drainage facilities and set up generators to take care of the electricity problems.

Today the Assam unit feeds 53,649 children across 592 government schools through its centralised kitchen on every school day. This kitchen is ISO 22000:2005 certified and complies with Food Safety Management Systems and adopts best practices like Six Sigma and Kaizen; to ensure quality, hygienic and delicious food is sent out to the children benefitting from the programme.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation today feeds 1.39 million children across India every day. With a mission to serve 5 million by 2020, the Foundation needs all the help and support it can get. To make a donation toward this worthy cause click https://www.akshayapatra.org/onlinedonations

The wisdom of youth

Very often, all the help in the world will not aid you if you do not help yourself. 12 year old Kavita, a young beneficiary of The Akshaya Patra Foundation mid-day meal, seems to be someone who subscribes to this concept. A student of the Chikkasandra Government Higher Primary School in Bangalore, Kavita is a smart young lady who dreams of being a respected, successful woman in the future.