The tax season is not merely about saving tax! It is also an opportunity for people to make a meaningful change in society. By supporting a social cause, you can contribute to improve the world and receive tax benefits in return. If you are reading this, you already care about making a difference.

This tax season, double your impact by supporting the cause of alleviating classroom hunger and receive tax exemption under Section 80G.

What is Section 80G?

Section 80G is a testament to the government’s support of individuals’ philanthropic efforts. With an aim to incentivise charitable giving, the Government of India gives tax exemption for donations above ₹500 to a registered charitable organisation under Section 80G of the Income Tax (IT) Act.

By donating to an NGO registered under Section 80G, you can claim a deduction from your taxable amount. Depending on the organisation’s registration, a taxpayer can claim either a 50 percent or 100 percent exemption from their taxable amount. However, taxpayers should be aware that not all non-profits or charitable organisations are eligible to offer donors a Section 80G deduction.

Double Impact: Feed Children. Save Tax.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation serves hot and nutritious mid-day meals to millions of children in government and government-aided schools. Currently, we are serving mid-day meals to 2.25 million children in more than 23,000 schools across India. Over the last 24 years, we are striving to reach every child with meals and protect their right to nutrition and education.

Apart from mid-day meals, we also have initiatives to serve meals to mothers in ashrams, the Anganwadi feeding programme and food assistance as a part of the disaster relief. Whether it was floods, cyclone or earthquake, as a responsible NGO, the Foundation has always worked diligently within the country and abroad to provide relief to people in the aftermath of a disaster.

This tax season, join us in our endevour by donating meals and receive tax benefits in return.

Keerthana – A Paediatrician in the Making

In Keerthana’s childhood memories, doctors have a huge role as she often falls sick. The way the doctors treated her left a lasting impression on her. It seeded in her the dream to become a Paediatrician and give children the care and compassion she received once.

Keerthana lives with her parents and elder brother. Her father is a mason and her mother works as a househelp. Her brother is studying in 9th standard in a different school. Though her parents have a busy schedule at work, they always make sure that nothing stands in the way of their children’s education and give them all the support they can.

As her parents leave early for work, Keerthana sometimes has to skip breakfast. The mid-day meals that Akshaya Patra serves at her school are a huge relief to her parents as they ensure her health and help her focus on her classes.

With gratitude to her parents, teachers and Akshaya Patra, Keerthana moves forward with unyielding determination to achieve her dream. As she continues her journey, let’s stand by her side by ensuring nourishing meals every day.

If you are looking for a trustworthy NGO to donate to, we can say confidently that you have come to the right place. Our organisation has been awarded the ICAI Gold Shield Award for seven consecutive years and is the only NGO that entered the ICAI Hall of Fame. This itself will speak for our credibility. So, without waiting any longer, click on the button below to feed children and save tax.

Donate online. Bring smiles. Get 50% tax exemption

New normal has just begun; slowly things are trying to get back to their old lifestyles with a few changes here and there. So is the case with Akshaya Patra, an NGO in India too. As schools have decided to start reopening with the guidelines given by the Central Government of India, the Foundation’s kitchens have also started gearing up. Here is the latest Akshaya Patra’s News – the NGO has inaugurated its centralised kitchens in Jamnagar, Gujarat and Guwahati, Assam.

More kitchens mean more places to serve mid-day meals to school children. So far in Gujarat, 6 kitchens were set up in Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, Surat, Kalol and Bhuj. The NGO kitchen in Jamnagar will be a centralised unit that will prepare, cook and deliver mid-day meals to children studying in Government and Government-aided schools of the city.

However, the kitchen in Guwahati has been relocated in a different location in the city itself and has been upgraded to feed more mid-day meal beneficiaries when compared to the earlier number of 20,000 school children.

Akshaya Patra’s kitchens in Jamnagar and Guwahati
The centralised kitchen in Jamnagar was inaugurated on 15th January 2021 by the Chief Minister of the state, Shri Vijay Rupani and in Guwahati on 20th January 2021 by the Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal. The kitchens are sponsored by The Reliance Foundation and Jamnagar Municipal Corporation and Airports Authority of India respectively that have the capacity to cook 50,000 meals each, every day. Here is a glimpse of the inauguration of each of these kitchens:

Inauguration of Jamnagar kitchen

Inauguration of Guwahati kitchen

Utmost care is taken to ensure that children’s health is not compromised. Stainless steel of 304 grade is used in the kitchens for the endurance of high levels of temperatures. These include rice chutes, rice cookers, dal cauldrons, vegetable cutters, roti making machine, etc.

Top-notch equipment used for hygienic preparation of food
A series of high-end equipment is used to ensure minimal human interaction while food is being prepared. This includes:

Rice cauldrons
These rice cauldrons are a bigger version of the rice cookers used at home. However, these have a capacity of 500 litres. These cauldrons are easy to clean and handle with a steam jacket. Once the rice is cooked, the whole cauldron can be tilted to be packed into insulated vessels at a later stage of delivery.

Atta kneading and Roti making machine
Akshaya Patra caters to the local palate to avoid wastage of food. Since rotis are preferred more in the North States than in Southern India, to reduce time spent in kneading and rolling, a roti-making machine is installed in the Guwahati and Jamnagar kitchens. Each machine has the capacity of kneading 75 kilos of wheat flour per hour and making a whopping number of 10,000 rotis per hour.

Biogas and RO plants
Akshaya Patra has adopted biogas systems in its centralised kitchens to convert organic waste into heat energy. This plant has the capacity to convert 1,000 kilos into clean energy every single day. This energy is used for fire-based cooking like frying and seasoning.

The kitchens use a three-step purification technology called Reverse Osmosis. This method of purification is used to make drinking water more potable. This also ensures that children’s health is not affected.

The NGO kitchens in Jamnagar and Guwahati use high-end technology that will feed approximately one lakh children on a daily basis. This means that the NGO in India is one more step closer to achieving its mission of feeding 5 million children by 2025.

Support Akshaya Patra in its endeavours.