Akshaya Patra Kitchen Story

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in India implementing the mid-day meal programme across the country. The Foundation began its service way back in 2000. Since then there has been no looking back. Beginning with feeding 1,500 children in five Government schools of Bangalore city of Karnataka state, the Foundation has strategically increased is beneficiary base while also expanding to different locations. From having kitchen at just one location, Akshaya Patra gradually moved on to having kitchens at 23 more locations. Today Akshaya Patra is operational in 24 locations across 10 states.

Initially Akshaya Patra had only Centralised Kitchen units but gradually the need was felt to feed in the remote areas too. This made way to the adoption of Decentralised Kitchen format. As the name suggests, The Centralised Kitchen format of Akshaya Patra is a mechanised unit that can cook up to one lakh meals per day. Centralised kitchen units are meant to for large scale feeding and thus serve as node kitchen for a group of Government schools in and around the kitchen location. The centralised format of Akshaya Patra kitchen is mostly followed in urban and semi-urban locations. The terrain, accessibility and construction challenges that prevail in remote locations make the decentralised format suitable for such areas. The decentralised kitchens are run by Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) under the guidance and supervision of Akshaya Patra’s kitchen process and operations module.

The similarity that runs through each kitchen while preparing meal for millions of children each is the strict and mandatory process of maintaining hygiene, cleanliness and nutrition. How the Akshaya Patra kitchens achieve this day in and day out? The answer is - compulsory adherence to Food Safety Management System in handling, preparing and delivering food to prevent food borne illness. At present 10 of the total kitchens are ISO 22000:2005 Certified and the remaining are on the quest towards achieving the same.

The state-of-the-art kitchen of Akshaya Patra has received prime time slot broadcast – ‘Shiksha Ka Mahabhog’ in the popular series Mega Kitchen of National Geographic Channel. A click at Akshaya Patra Kitchens will provide you a detailed draft about the functioning of the kitchens in feeding over 1.4 million children across India.

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The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India works to eliminate classroom hunger through its mid-day meal programme Akshaya Patra reaches out to over 1.4 million children a day.

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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Quiet and Confident they Carry On

When you walk through the gates of GHPS government school at Chikkasandra, Bangalore, around lunch time, the excitement in the air is palpable. As Akshaya Patra Foundation mid-day meals are served and children laughing and screaming fall into line, I look mesmerised into their smiling faces.

Snapshots of joy on a wall of hope

From the 10th to 12th of January, The Akshaya Patra Foundation hosted a photography exhibit titled ‘The Wall of Hope and Joy’ at the ‘Vismaya’ Rangoli Art Gallery, Metro Station, MG Road, Bangalore. Showcasing myriad photographs of children laughing, smiling, playing and positively bursting with exuberance, this photo exhibit was almost like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

Karnataka: Ahead of the Curve

At The Akshaya Patra Foundation we have been striving towards realising our goal of feeding 5 million children across India by 2020, providing them with our tasty, nutritious mid-day meals so that no child need be denied education because of hunger.

Recently we were gratified to see our efforts reaping benefits when the Ministry of Human Resource and Development announced its first ever mid-day meals ranking of all the states that are part of the scheme, in a survey conducted across April to June, 2013.