General

Be an Online Supporter

Sometimes even though we feel for a cause and want to be a part of the solution, our day to day work holds us back. At the end of the day we convince ourselves saying ‘I would have done my bit if I had time’.

We believe that if we have the passion for the cause and the spark within, we can make a child smile without disturbing our daily operations. Sign in as a Cyber Advocate for The Akshaya Patra Foundation and all you have to do is:-

• Forward the mailers to your friends and help us spread the word across.
• Promote Akshaya Patra in your social networking profile and ask your friends to follow us.
• Introduce Akshaya Patra to all your online communities/ fan clubs etc.
• Download and use our screensavers, buttons, posters, wallpapers, banners etc.

Blog Writing Opportunity for Volunteers
If you are a blogger, write about Akshaya Patra in your blog and let people know that you support the cause. You can also write what you feel about Akshaya Patra and the cause we work for and send it to us. We will publish it in our blog.

Online Fundraising Volunteer Opportunities 
Akshaya Patra feeds 1.3 million children every day across 9 states and 19 locations. We also plan to expand our operations to more and more locations. People across the globe are helping us raise this fund in their own small ways.

Register yourself as an online fund raising volunteer. Fund raised will go to providing mid-day meal to the school children. The fundraiser contributing the highest amount will get published in our collaterals.

Social Media Volunteer Opportunities

 You can become a social media volunteer for Akshaya Patra depending on which Social Media site you are more active.

All of us spend some time on Social Networking sites. Why not for a noble cause? You can-

• Become our fan on facebook and regularly like our post and share with your friends.
• Tweet and re-tweet about us on Twitter
• Share our You Tube video
• Add us in your circle in Google Plus

You can be active in all or in any of these activities. Your effort will be acknowledged by us on our Face book page.

We welcome suggestions from your side     

Besides the above given options if you feel you can support Akshaya Patra in some other way being in line with the objective of the organisation, we would like to hear from you.

For all your queries

Write to: infodesk@akshayapatra.org

Tel:       080 32471066

Mob:    +91 8494918845

Offline Volunteer Opportunities

<table align=”left” width=”225″>
<tr><td>
<img style=”float: left; margin: 10px; border: 0px;” src=”http://www.akshayapatra.org/sites/default/files/images/industrial_traning_img4.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Akshaya Patra Foundation” title=”A Boon for Hearing Impaired” /><br/>
Hanume waiting in line for his lunch
</td></tr>
</table>

<p>
Hanume appears to be a born leader as he directs and aids his classmates around the metal shop. Like any twenty-something pursuing his studies, he has many aspirations in life. Currently in his second and final year at the Technical Training Center for Deaf in Bangalore, Hanume plans to get a job after his course completion and become an earning member of his family. As the eldest and only son, his responsibilities are many. Though his father is a farmer in the mainly agricultural district of Mandya, in Karnataka, Hanume hopes to work with computers to support his family. After finishing the second year, he wants to train further in the subject and work in the IT industry.  </p>
<p style=”text-align: justify;”><img style=”float: right; margin: 10px; border: 0px;” src=”http://www.akshayapatra.org/sites/default/files/images/industrial_traning_img2.jpg” title=”A Boon for Hearing Impaired” border=”0″ alt=””  />
Stories like his have echoed through the silent classrooms of the training institute for nearly 25 years. Hearing impaired children from across India come to this Center for the Deaf to receive the National Trade Certificate that will give them employment opportunities. Many previous students, like Y.L. Harsha are already placed in some of the leading companies of the country. His younger brother, Jagadish, is also training at the institute now and hopes to follow in his brother’s footsteps. </p>
<p>Currently there are over 80 students at the Center, which faces many challenges in its day to day operations. As Mrs. Gloria William, Managing Trustee explains, funds are not always adequate to meet the institute’s requirements. Some students find it especially difficult staying in a temporary hostel on the premises. Food is often an area of concern. </p>
<p style=”text-align: justify;”><img style=”float: left; margin: 10px; border: 0px;” src=”http://www.akshayapatra.org/sites/default/files/images/industrial_traning_img1.jpg” title=”A Boon for Hearing Impaired” border=”0″ alt=””  />
“We came up with a makeshift hostel arrangement out of need. Some students didn’t have the finances for accommodation outside, so we decided to provide them with a place to stay.  But the children still have to manage their own food,” she says.
One aspect of her worries for the Institute is now resolved. Starting this 27th of December, Akshaya Patra, with the support of ABB, a leader in power and automation technologies, will be providing mid-day meals at the Institute on a regular basis. The meals will be particularly helpful for those students who are currently staying at the hostel. </p>
<p>“We have two shifts in the school: one which starts at 8:30 a.m. for the second years, and another which starts at 10:00 in the morning for the first years. Many of these children come to school early, often without breakfast, so this one meal will be extremely helpful,” says Mrs. William. </p>

Originally from Wyoming, Elizabeth Dobson Jeffords has been residing in India for nearly six years. She decided to contribute to the mid-day meal program being implemented by Akshaya Patra after visiting The Foundation’s kitchen in Vasanthapura, Bangalore. The facility, which is ISO:22000 certified, uses innovative techniques and state of the art technology to serve more than 100,000 children everyday.

“As an architect, I can tell you that the kitchen is impressive,” she said, going on to add that the facility provides food that is far better than most places she has seen. Elizabeth also carefully viewed many other organizations before she came to her decision.

“What I felt here, is that the Foundation’s got a good heart. I’d recommend it to anybody in any school.” she says.

This December, Elizabeth contributed a custom built food transportation vehicle to Akshaya Patra. The vehicle’s inaugural ceremony took place at St. Anne’s Educational Institute in Bangalore. The schools that the Foundation reaches out to are located an average 50km from the centralized kitchens of Vasanthapura and H.K. Hill in Bangalore. Food vans, therefore, are an essential requirement for the kitchen facilities.

When asked about Akshaya Patra’s aims to reach out to millions more, she responded, “You never know what your limits are until you push beyond them.”

As a commemoration to their daughter Miss Ammanabrolu Akhila Sai Sri, Mr. Ammanabrolu Venkateswara Rao & Mrs. Ammanabrolu Lakshmi Kantam have made a donation to Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme. She was born on 15 November 1993 at Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. She was a Medical student, studying her Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS-1^st year) at Sri Sai Dental College, Vikarabad. Besides being a bright student, she was a social, affectionate and helpful person who received appreciation from her family and friends.

Akhila was affected by an unknown virus resulting in quick deterioration of her health even before the eminent doctors could diagnose the real cause. Doctors did try their best to save her life but in vain. Akhila succumbed on 27^th December 2011, thus leaving a permanent scar in the hearts of her beloved parents, younger sister, relatives and friends. A budding doctor who had an ambitious plan to serve the society had left for abode so prematurely in her life shattering her own dreams and the dreams of her parents.

Through this column, Mr. & Mrs. Ammanabrolu on behalf of the entire family would like to appeal to all parents to take care of their children residing in hostels for pursuing higher education. They hope that their contribution could help the needy children for their bright future.

We at Akshaya Patra pray in silence for her soul to rest in peace. We sincerely thank Mr. & Mrs. Ammanabrolu for the contribution.

“What’s in a meal?” or “What can a meal do?” The immediate answer is- it can fill a hungry stomach. Have we ever thought what else a meal can do? Often we have not. But, The Akshaya Patra Foundation gave an earnest thought to it. It realized that the goodness and potential of one meal goes far beyond just filling a hungry stomach; it reaches out till the generations that are yet to come.

It’s a fact that a hungry stomach cannot think of anything else but food. So, unless this basic need is met, it is evident that an individual cannot think of future goals. For the mind to think beyond food, the stomach has to be full. The same rule applies when it comes to learning or education. If we need a child to get educated, we need to first feed the child. For this reason, if a child is provided school lunch, it will simultaneously aid in furthering the cause.  This is where Akshaya Patra comes to fore. It works towards providing unlimited food for education.

Akshaya Patra provides school lunch to Government school students on every school working days through its mid-day meal programme. The inception of the Foundation dates back to June 2000. 12 years of its successful journey can be seen in its achievements and future plans. The crystal clear focus on its aim of reaching more and more children is evident in its current reach of 1.3 million children across India.

Here is an anecdote of a little boy that tells the power of one wholesome meal:

Sunny Kheralia, a 13 year old from Rajasthan is a grade 7 student. His is a large family comprising of 3 brothers and 1 sister. His father works as a sweeper in a local hospital earning a very low salary of around Rs. 3000 per month.  Sunny is a brilliant student and has been scoring very high grades in his academics. He takes up his studies sincerely and enjoys the meal at school. An Akshaya Patra meal beneficiary he says, “I enjoy eating the noon meal provided by the Akshaya Patra Foundation.”

Sunny has grown up seeing his father sweeping the hospital corridor everyday. But with the education he has been receiving he hopes to bring in a welcome change in the family and especially in his father’s life. Sunny aspires to be a doctor and work in the same hospital where his father is working currently. This instance evidently brings forth the benefit of education, and potential of one wholesome meal, in transforming a society for better.

The state-of-the-art kitchens of The Akshaya Patra Foundation have a character of their own. Of the many factors that derive its character, the most significant is – “the journey of a million smiles begins here”. These kitchens not only cook food for 1.3 million children; but they also cook a serving of happiness with each meal. This is the reason we call our kitchens “The Happiness Factory”.

There is a story behind every meal we cook. In order to continue this journey of smiles, Akshaya Patra ensures that there is no compromise on quality and hygiene at any point, right from procurement of raw materials to delivery of the hot nutritious food. Kitchens of Akshaya Patra employ various measures to ensure hygiene, quality, and variety of meals of served, along with increasing the efficiency of kitchen process. Some of the key measures are:

• To ensure fresh food is supplied, efficiency concepts such as Kaizen, 5S and Six Sigma are adopted at the kitchens, which also results in increased capacity of producing up to 1,50,000 nutritious meals a day.
• To ensure cost effectiveness, food items like grains and spices are sourced through central procurement teams, while perishable food items like vegetables, fruits and dairy products are sourced locally.
• To ensure that the food is prepared hygienically, Total Quality Management (TQM) tools are used to comply with the ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety and Management System Standards.
• Furthermore, hygiene is ensured through minimal human handling of food.
• Meals are prepared as per regional preferences ensuring, that the nutritious food served is also tasty to the palette.
• Desserts and sweets are served during special occasions – a sweetened rice pudding- Pongal, in South India and a milk based dessert, Kheer is served to the children in North India.

At Akshaya Patra, the commitment to perform with precision has become plausible through technical marvels such as:

• Rice cauldron that cooks close to 100kgs of fresh rice every 20 minutes.
• Sambar cauldron has the capacity of 1200 litres that can feed 6000 children.
• 27 varieties of sambar recipes are available for the children.
• Vegetables in the sambar are minced thoroughly to make it chewable for the tiny tots.
• The roti making machine that can produce up to 60,000 rotis in an hour. 
• Pilferage avoided through monitoring the delivery of the food to schools. Global Positioning Devices (GPS) have been installed in the meal delivery vehicles.
• Vehicles are heat insulated, dust free and can deliver 1,50,000 meals within 6 hours.

“Pulao, Rice – sambar, curd rice, sweet pongal, bisibele bath, tomato rice…,” a bunch of children join six-year old Dimple as repeats the Akshaya Patra menu when asked what she eats for lunch at the school. They answer while she tries to stitch a button- an exercise given by her teacher to improve her hand-eye coordination.

In the same classroom, Bhavya is teaching her classmates to dance. With the help of gestures she ensures that they understand her instructions. Her auditory impairment seems to disappear to oblivion as she successfully puts up the two-minute dance sequence.

Her classmates are as differently-abled as her. Many of the children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, behaviour disorders and autism. There are 180 students like Bhavya and Dimple at Aruna Chetana – a school for the differently-abled in Bangalore.

The children are given various training and therapies based on their needs, their abilities and interests. This includes sessions on sensory stimulation, auditory therapies, physiotherapy, behaviour management, etc. At 1:00 PM the children assemble to have their mid-day meal which is provided by The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Gayathri Panju, the principal of the school says, “For the last 10 years, Akshaya Patra has been helping us by providing nutritious mid-day meal. Children love the Rice – sambar. Many of the parents say that the children prefer the sambar given by the Foundation than what is cooked at home.”

Most children at the school come from lower socio-economic families. Gayathri says, “Ten years ago, we didn’t have any support system like Akshaya Patra to provide mid-day meals, so most children would just get plain-yellow-coloured rice sans vegetables. Today the food we get from Akshaya Patra is fresh and nutritious, and this has resulted in improvement in children’s health.” She explains that just like in the regular day schools, the mid-day meal programme has been the key reason for increase in attendance by about 40% in the school.

Many children at Aruna Chetana have participated in international sports meet for the differently-abled and have brought laurels. The trophies and medals in the principal’s room are a testimony to this success. A gold plated frame with a letter of appreciation from the Karnataka state government acknowledges Aruna Chetana as the oldest school in the state for the differently-abled.

Aruna Chetana believes that every child has the fundamental right of access to education. Hence few of the children who are trained are also integrated into regular schooling after grade 5. Many of them today have completed their schooling, few are even employed.

While Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal nourishes these children to grow stronger, Aruna Chetana’s commitment helps them to harbour a very special dream.

“India cannot fully develop its economic potential until all of its children receive a proper education” was said by Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys Technologies, in a Fundraising event of The Akshaya Patra Foundation held at Milpitas, California, United States, on 17 November 2012. Murthy also sits on the advisory board of the Akshaya Patra Foundation USA. Speaking to India-West before the evening event at the India Community Center in Milpitas, Murthy said, “One of the most important ingredients needed for the success of our country is inclusivity through education. Every Indian is excited about this concept,” adding, “We must bring the power of education to every poor child in India. It is our path to global progress.”

With the vision of “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”, Akshaya Patra was founded in 2000 in Bangalore, India. The Foundation serves a daily school lunch under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme to 1.3 million low-income children in Government schools. Presently operating in 20 locations across 9 states in India, it reaches out to 9075 schools. The meals are prepared in state-of-the-art ISO-certified kitchen facilities and cater to local palate. The programme aims to encourage more children to attend school and is aiming to scale up to be able to serve 5 million children by the year 2020. The organizers of the Milpitas event mentioned Akshaya Patra’s milestone achievement of recently crossing the one billion mark for serving meals.

“India has been making spectacular growth,” he said, noting that the country’s gross domestic product was growing by five percent. Foreign direct investment in India has risen to $30 billion, said Murthy, adding that the country was also “number one” in telecom services throughout the world. “But there is another India which is untouched by this spectacular growth,” said the Indian entrepreneur, noting that 700 million Indians live without proper sanitation and 280 million live without regular water supplies.

It is certain that the fund raised will be of significant aid in the progress towards achieving the mission of Akshaya Patra; thereby helping the Foundation in achieving its vision. Akshaya Patra sincerely thanks all the donors and the organisers of the event.

Source:http://www.indiawest.com/news/7720-akshaya-patra-aims-to-serve-lunches-to-5m-kids-by-2020.html

President Pranab Mukherjee on 19 November 2012 launched a nationwide Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign against malnutrition in India- an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Speaking at the launch, Mr. Mukherjee addressed the malnutrition figures as a wake-up call that needs to be resolved in an intensive manner so as to ensure good nutrition and health for children and their mothers. He went on to say, “This is disturbing…. These figures are a wakeup call for all of us and underline the need for concerted drive against malnutrition, and until we ensure good nutrition and health for our children and their mothers we cannot achieve our targets of sustained and inclusive growth.”

The campaign will be rolled out in four stages:

• Stage 1- Create awareness on symptoms of malnutrition for a period of eight weeks;
• Stage 2- Give a clarion call or public request, spread over six weeks.
• Stage 3- Key messages on basic critical practices for maternal and childcare to prevent from malnutrition.
• Stage 4- Inform the public about acquiring services and Mother Child Protection card.

In order to create maximum awareness, the campaign will be launched in 18 languages and will be advertised through all communication mediums- TV, radio and print. Actor Aamir Khan and lyricist Prasoon Joshi has been roped in by the Ministry to steer the awareness campaign. This campaign has been designed with technical support of UNICEF.

With the intention of achieving a hunger free and educated society, Akshaya Patra too is working for a similar cause by providing mid-day meal to children of Government school and Government aided schools in 19 locations across 9 states. This mid-day meal programme of Akshaya Patra proved to be a real blessing for the children and an incentive for many parents. Many parents started sending their children to school, with the surety that the children will at least get one full meal for the day. This simultaneously was enabling the children to get educated too. So, the mid-day meal in reality was countering two critical issues – hunger and education.

The mid-day meal programme of Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest NGO run school lunch programme. The Foundation serves freshly prepared, nutritious meals to 1.3 million children of over 9000 schools on all school working days. This has benefitted the children as there were visible improvements in their health. Below are a few instances of the impact Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal programme had on the children:

• Juliet Pinto, Principal- Government Higher Primary School Mangalore, states that “health camps are conducted thrice a year, one of which is conducted by a government clinic which is situated close to the school. Incidentally, the clinic was set up at the same time when Akshaya Patra began feeding the school. The health supervisor found all the children to be healthy except general flu and common cold.”

• Lingaraj Bevour is a teacher in a small village school of Bukkasagara, about 50 kilometers away from the city of Bellary. The students of his school mainly hail from families of quarry workers. As both the parents need to work for supporting the family and leave early in the morning, the mid-day meal becomes the first, and many times the only full meal of many students. Despite the hardships, the noticeable aspect was the health improvement among children after the introduction of Mid-Day Meal Scheme by Akshaya Patra. Lingaraj Bevour says, “The health of the children in my school improved tremendously after regular food was provided by Akshaya Patra under the mid-day meal programme.”

• Assistant Head Mistress of Government Higher Primary School- Ashokapuram, Mysore, Geetha Lobo says, “The strength of the school has improved since food started being served here. Prior to Akshaya Patra’s intervention through the mid-day meal programme, some children used to faint from hunger during assembly, but that’s no longer the case. Now, they attend classes regularly and they concentrate better during lessons”.

• Nazia Tazeem, is the school in-charge at the Rehmani Model Senior Secondary School, Jaipur. She says, “It is only from the last three years that our children are receiving the mid-day meal. The health of the children was a major concern. Today the mid-day meal in the school provided by Akshaya Patra has a positive impact on the children’s health and has also brought about the much required change. The mid-day meal has helped the school in increasing attendance and enrolment among girls and reducing drop-out rate.” The numerous awards that now decorate the school office are a testimony to the children’s growth story. The significance of nutritious meal highlighted by The Akshaya Patra Foundation has translated into the school authorities educating the parents on nutrition too.

• Madhusudhan Mahapatra oversees Akshaya Patra’s decentralized kitchens in Nayagarh district of Odisha. The mid-day meal program goes beyond filling a hungry stomach, says Mahapatra. He cites of witnessing improved rates of enrolment and attendance in the years since Akshaya Patra began implementing the scheme in many of the village schools of Nayagarh district. He says, “In a state where nearly 46.8% of the population lives below the poverty line (Orissa has one of the highest figures for child mortality in the country)*, with high rates of child malnutrition, the fact that their children will get good food proves to be a strong catalyst for parents to send them to school.”

• *Food Security Atlas of Rural Orissa, 2008, a report by the UN World Food Program and the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi

Sources: http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=781201

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/President-launches-campaign-to-combat-malnutrition/articleshow/17286554.cms