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.

A Thought to Share on International Literacy Day

UNESCO commemorates International Literacy Day on September 8, every year. It is to bring awareness and promote the importance of education. India’s scene in term of literacy is not so desirable.

• According to a survey, India's literacy rate increases ‘lethargically’
• A 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy
• According to the 2011 census, India had a literacy rate of 74.04 percent
• In the year 2014, the literacy rate of India increased by 10 percent

How is India looking forward to tackle the challenge?

It has to start from the root, the children. The Government of India launched ‘The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Hindi for Total Literacy Campaign was in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14-year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. The Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education are two important aspects of the campaign, meant primarily for children in areas with no formal school within a one kilometre radius.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, as an NGO runs the mid-day meal programme to provide nutritious food to the school children and promote education thus, providing substantial support to ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’. The programme has grown from feeding 1,500 children in the year 2000 to 1.4 million children in 2014. Today, this organisation feeds free mid-day meals to school children in 10,845 Government schools and Government-aided schools. The organisation currently has its presence in 24 locations across 10 states in India.

The not-for-profit organisation’s vision is—‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’. To achieve this vision, Akshaya Patra provides ‘unlimited food for education’.

The programme has brought back children to schools, increase attendance, decrease drop-out rate, and promote socialisation. All will directly impact in increasing the literacy rate amongst children in India.

How can you help?

You can be a volunteer to the NGO. You can support a child with mid-day meal for year. This activity will lead to successful implementation of the mid-day meal programme eventually resulting in children getting educated.

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 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.

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.

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.