In Assam, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been operational for more than a decade, serving hot, nutritious and tasty mid-day meals to children to support their nutrition and education. In February 2010, it began implementing the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme—now rechristened the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan—with the feeding of around 8,000 children from a rented place in Amingaon locality in North Guwahati. Since then, it has come a long way to become one of the most admired NGOs in Assam. It currently feeds over 43,000 children in two locations in the state, Guwahati and Jorhat, with the continued support of the government and donors.
Akshaya Patra Guwahati
An NGO in Guwahati with a decade-long experience, Akshaya Patra began operations from a rented place in 2010. In 2017, the government allotted land to build a new kitchen while the Airports Authority of India (AAI) sponsored the CAPEX for the same. It built a new unit with the capacity to prepare and serve 50,000 mid-day meals. It currently serves mid-day meals to over 32,000 children studying in more than 550 schools in two districts of Assam – Kamrup (75 percent coverage) and Kamrup Metro (25 percent coverage).
As the district is located on the banks of Brahmaputra river, most people are dependent on fishing and related daily-wage activities for their source of income. The children from these families come to the school with the assurance that they will get a full meal in the afternoon from Akshaya Patra.
Akshaya Patra Jorhat
In Jorhat, Akshaya Patra opened its first kitchen on 29 July 2022—the 2nd kitchen for the NGO in Assam and 65th in the country. Through this kitchen, it primarily caters to the children of people working in tea estates in the region. This kitchen has the capacity to prepare and serve 25,000 mid-day meals. Currently, it feeds over 10,000 children studying in more than 150 schools in the region.
Over the years, livelihood opportunities in tea plantations have attracted thousands of people to this northeastern state. Most of these people have settled in and around the tea plantations where they work, while their children work in the government schools in the vicinity. As these people have to go to work early in the morning, their children often come to school on an empty stomach. The NGO in Jorhat is making an impact by ensuring these children’s access to MDM, which is the first proper meal of the day for many of these children.
Menu in Assam
Akshaya Patra has always strived to adhere to local palate and regional acceptability in its capacity as a mid-day meal NGO. In Assam, people prefer to eat rice, and therefore, the menu in the state is rice-based. Similarly, mustard oil is preferred over soya oil and is a primary constituent of the Akshaya Patra menu in Guwahati and Jorhat. Accordingly, it serves rice, pulao, khichdi, kheer, varieties of dal and vegetable preparations, such as aaloo matar tomato sabji, kabuli chana sabji and louki with chana dal sabji, etc.
Basically, the menu combinations are designed to ensure that the prescribed MDM nutrition norms are maintained even when the menu varies from day to day. Furthermore, the Foundation has always attempted to improve food consumption through innovative methods. In Guwahati, for instance, it has introduced pitha—a rice cake preparation—as an additional item, which has become quite popular among children as evident from the increase in mid-day meal consumption on the day it is served.
Beneficiary Testimonials
In ensuring children’s access to hot, nutritious and tasty mid-day meals every single day, Akshaya Patra aims to support their education and consequently, their dreams and aspirations.
Over the years, Akshaya Patra has established itself as one of the most credible NGOs not just in Assam but the entire country. If you seek to donate to a charity, you need not look any further. Join the Foundation’s mission to reach out to over 3 million children every school day by 2025 and help it in its pursuit of a world where ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’
