An act of giving brings unmatchable happiness in our lives. The Akshaya Patra Foundation feeds more than a million children on a daily basis; the smile on these children’s faces say a million words that spell THANK YOU. Uphold dreams of children who are willing to dream big and small. With your donation, you ensure that a child’s year is filled with healthy school meals.

The art of shaping one’s future lies in one’s own hands. But what if they are children who are depending on elders to support them in achieving their dreams? There are many organisations that provide support to children. One such NGO in India is The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Here is a story of one dream that is being nurtured.

Afroz is a student of class 7 studying in Ballari, Karnataka. He inherits his father’s genes to love nature. His father taught him to stay centred, have patience, and create balance. From then, he decided to be a successful businessman so that he can earn lots of money and take up his father’s pottery business on an even greater scale.

Regular school meals provided by Akshaya Patra has helped Afroz in concentrating better in class. Mid-day meals help him stay healthy to focus on achieving his dreams of becoming a businessman.

India runs the largest Mid-Day Meal Programme and The Akshaya Patra Foundation is recognised as the world’s largest NGO-run school meal programme. By implementing the Mid-Day Meals Scheme, it started off by feeding 1,500 children in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Today it feeds a total of 18,00,907 children studying in 19,039 Government schools and Government-aided schools. Akshaya Patra is spread over 52 locations in 12 States and 2 Union Territories in India.

How is Akshaya Patra different from other mid-day meal NGOs?
The Akshaya Patra Foundation prepares and serves school meals from centralised kitchens situated in 50 locations and decentralised kitchens situated in two locations by giving foremost priority to hygiene and cleanliness.

You can get a list of kitchens serving mid-day meals in each State, here.

Both the type of kitchens adhere to Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS guidelines) that include:
• Selection process for raw material supplier
• Standard storage and allotment system
• Steam sterilisation of cooking equipment and utensils
• Usage of 304 grade stainless steel vessels and utensils
• Training of cooks and supervisors to ensure food safety and undertaking pest control measures
• Checking critical points like cooking temperature, temperature while packing meals, etc.

By showing your support to implement the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in many other schools with Akshaya Patra, you give hope to children’s dreams.

Wondering how?
With every donation, you feed children with a year full of healthy and wholesome meals. By doing so, you take care of their overall development – both physical and cognitive. With a donation of ₹3300, you ensure that three children get daily school lunch for one academic year. If these children do not have to think of where their next meal will come from, they will be able to focus better in class and score higher in their academics.

The thought of having changed lives in some way or the other, brings immense joy and satisfaction. The happiness on seeing children’s smiling faces supersedes any other emotion.

You do not have to wait for the right time to make your donation. All you have to do is donate towards Akshaya Patra to provide unlimited food for education to young children.
This will enable millions of children progress towards their dreams.

Children are small, but not their aspirations.
Dreams bring smiles.
How many smiles would you like to support today?

7th April of every year is celebrated as World Health Day to ensure good health of everybody around the world. Many NGOs work for the betterment of people and children living in challenging socio-economic conditions. Donations made towards The Akshaya Patra Foundation provides healthy and wholesome mid-day meals to children on all school days along with making you eligible for tax deduction.

Flashback to a few years before the year 1948
The whole world was concerned about vector-borne diseases spreading in large numbers. More than half the world’s population was at the risk of diseases like malaria, dengue, yellow fever that continued to impact the world’s poor population. In the year 1948, The World Health Organization (WHO) was formed.

Year: 1950; Geneva
A World Health Assembly was held for the first time in the history of mankind with 61 Nations who had agreed to sign the charter of WHO. The assembly decided that 7th April would be celebrated as World Health Day to commemorate the date in which the WHO constitution had officially come into force in 1948.

Back to 2020
Today, we may not have many fatalities due to vector-borne disease, they are under check since today’s generation is a little more conscious and aware about the importance of maintaining cleanliness, hygiene and health.Thanks to many NGOs in India and around the world that constantly work in either educating people, providing facilities to maintain hygiene or to provide meals that helps them stay healthy.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one such non-profit organisation that works towards the cause ‘Food for Education’ of children who study in Government and Government-aided schools. It started feeding children in the year 2000 and has been relentlessly serving healthy mid-day meals by implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme.On this World Health Day celebrated on 7th April 2020, let us pledge to donate to NGO’s like Akshaya Patra that works towards improving overall health of children who hail from socio-economically challenging backgrounds.

Benefits of your donation towards Akshaya Patra
Your contribution of ₹1100 ensures that a child is served with healthy and nutritious meals for an entire academic year. The benefits of making contributions towards Akshaya Patra are:
• Help in physical and cognitive development of children.
• Increase in number of children attending school.
• Helps in reducing the school drop-out rates.
• Improves nutritional levels in children consuming mid-day meals.
• Helps children in graduating from school and step towards their dreams.
• A sense of joy and satisfaction for having contributed towards the betterment of children
• Makes you eligible to receive tax deductions and your tax exempted deductions provide wholesome meals like roti, dal, rice, sambar and sabji and much more to school children.

Your donations significantly turn around lives of children for the better. So, on this World Health Day, how many lives will you change?

Support generously towards enhancing lives of children!