Over the past two weeks, in our posts ‘Partner with us on World Hunger Day‘ and ‘Understanding India’s Hunger Problem‘, we have discussed the severity of hunger and malnutrition in India. Today on World Hunger Day, we’re here to ask you to ‘Do something great’ to help end this situation.

If you’re not sure how to get started, here are some ways you can partner with Akshaya Patra to help end classroom hunger in India.

Donate: Today we feed over 1.4 million children across India every day. But we’re on a mission to reach out to 5 million children by 2020. You can help get us there by making a contribution towards the programme. A small donation of just Rs. 750 is enough to feed one child the daily mid-day meal every day for an entire year! Help change a life.

Volunteer: Help get the word of Akshaya Patra’s work out there by advocating for us! Volunteer at our programmes, promote our organisation via your social media, blog for us, take part in any way that you like. Use your skills to make a difference in the world.

Fundraise: Help us by raising funds for our programme! We have many different kinds of fundraising options, or you can write in to us at infodesk@akshayapatra.org with your own ideas. We also help you out in any way we can, and provide you with the basic branding collateral you’ll need. You can run your campaign individually, or with your friends. It’s easy and super fun!

CSR: Ask your company to partner with Akshaya Patra as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme. Some of the ways by which we provide CSR opportunities are through philanthropy in funds and in-kind donations, cause-marketing initiatives and events and sponsorships.

Be a Fellow: Take part in the next round of our year-long, paid Social Innovations Fellows Programme where we give you the opportunity to make a social impact and develop your leadership skills. Get first-hand insight into the social sector and learn how to build and sustain social initiatives!

It’s really easy to partner with us and start making a difference. But if you’re still on the fence, here’s a quick statistic for you:

66 million primary school children go to class hungry every day in the developing world.

Still think the world doesn’t need your help?

Hunger is an endemic issue that affects 805 million people (1in 9 people) on earth. Even worse, hunger doesn’t differentiate based on age. Each year around 3.1 million children below the age of five die because of poor nutrition. Around 100 million children in developing countries around the world are underweight, and 66 million primary school children go to class hungry on school days.

It’s a paradox. Today hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined; yet for the first time in human history we have the technology, resources and policies available to achieve zero hunger in our lifetime. (source: wfp)

That’s what the the Zero Hunger Challenge, launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, urges us to attempt. The World Food Programme emphasises this through their Hunger Map 2014 which points out the prevalence of undernourishment across the populations of developing countries in 2012-14. The map highlights the widespread hunger across the world by classifying countries according to a five point hunger scale.

Developed countries like the United States of America, Brazil, Argentina, the Russian Federation, Australia, countries of Europe and a few others fell within the ‘Very Low’ hunger scale; Peru, Colombia and China were a few that were rated ‘Moderately Low’; Bolivia, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India were some that were rated ‘Moderately High’; Botswana, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of Congo were rated ‘High’; while Namibia, Zambia, Ethiopia and others were rated ‘Very High’. Some countries were not rated due to insufficient data.

But by leveraging the huge amount of wealth available across the world and the growing global concern over hunger, with the technological advancements that allow us to mass produce food on a scale we’ve never seen before, we have the arsenal we need to eliminate global malnutrition and starvation for good.

Akshaya Patra has been attempting to achieve this amongst school children in India over the last 15 years. By partnering with the Government of India, the Foundation has created an affordable operations model where a contribution of Rs. 750 (£10/$15) can feed one child the nutritious, filling mid-day meal every day for an entire year. In fact, being a non-profit organisation Akshaya Patra is eager to pass on its operations model to interested parties to facilitate this war against hunger.

With its highly mechanised kitchens each designed to mass produce up to one lakh meals a day, the Foundation has served as an example with the London School of Business and the Harvard Business School doing case studies on the operations process. In addition, Akshaya Patra has also been nominated and represents itself on the Central Government Mid-Day Meal Scheme’s National Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee. These measures and more exemplify Akshaya Patra’s dedication to ending classroom hunger in India, and someday across the world.

With the community involvement in feeding programmes rising all over the world, the challenge to achieve zero hunger is becoming more achievable every day. Tell us how you would like to help make our world hunger free by leaving a comment below.