International Labour Day (May Day) celebrated on May 1st each year, marks a day of celebration of labourers, and the working class around the world. This day is used to promote labour unions, and to recommit to the cause of promoting dignified, safe and humane conditions to work in.

Akshaya Patra also believes in looking after its employees, and makes sure that the staff has a fulfilling, secure work with the Foundation. Employing nearly 4,000 men and over 2,200 women (according to January 2015 records) in different facets across the organisation, Akshaya Patra ensures that each employee enjoys equal opportunity for growth and development.

Even to the lowest paid staff members Akshaya Patra adheres to the prevalent minimum wage directives of that State Government, and where not applicable defers to the directives of the Central Government. Aside from this Akshaya Patra also abides by other statutory laws like the Employee State Insurance Act (1948), Employee Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act (1952), and the Payment of Gratuity Act (1972).

Akshaya Patra also promotes employment free of gender bias. Almost all the 24 kitchen units across the country employ women who assist in the cooking process. The decentralised kitchen units in Baran and Nayagarh together employ over 1,400 women from local self-help groups providing them with sustainable income and greater social standing, making them role models for future generations of women in the area.

The cooking process begins as early as 2am in the Akshaya Patra kitchens, so that the food is packed and ready for delivery by morning. In order to make this process safe and comfortable for the staff that has to arrive early, Akshaya Patra provides staff accommodation close to the premises at all their major kitchen units.

Akshaya Patra has also adopted a governance philosophy that helps it behave efficiently, ethically and create value for its employees. The Foundation achieves this through four basic tenets: board accountability to the Foundation and stakeholders (including employees), equitable treatment to all stakeholders (including employees), strategic guidance and effective monitoring by the Board, and transparency and timely disclosure.

It is this focus on constantly creating a healthy, inspiring and fulfilling work environment that has enabled Akshaya Patra to cross so many milestones in the past 15 years. With the continued mutual trust and dedication from both the organisation and employees, the Foundation looks forward to an even brighter future.

Over 60 recipes in just 48 hours.

That was the result of ‘Cookathon for Karnataka – Improving Nutrition in Mid-Day Meals’, an initiative by Ashoka India, Akshaya Patra and Something’s Cooking, held from 10th to 12th of April, 2015.

The challenge of the Cookathon was to use local ingredients in creative ways to improve the nutrition of children benefitting from the mid-day meal. The event was a grand success with participation from 36 cooks and experts who battled it out for 48 hours coming up with nutritious and tasty recipes.

The participants were divided according to eight regions (Bellary, Bangalore Urban, Bidar, Chamrajnagar, Coorg, Dakshin Kannada, Hubli and Shimoga), and used common, yet often unnoticed ingredients from these areas.

The participants were given plenty of guidance and encouragement along the way through Sunetra Roday, a nutritionist and retired Principal of the Maharashtra State Institute of Hotel Management & Catering; Chef Lars Charas, the Programme Manager of Feed the Planet from the Netherlands; Chef Manisha Bhasin from ITC Maurya in New Delhi; and Chef Ranajoy Chowdhury, Chef Samuel and Chef Senthil, three professors from the Institute of Hotel Management, Bangalore. They gave the participants a once-in-a-lifetime experience through their workshops where they explained how to measure calorific values, how to make complete and nutritious meals, recipe writing, costing, different food groups and more.

The over 60 recipes were evaluated by a panel of four judges, which included Ms. Vijayalakshmi, Assistant Director, Mid-Day Meal Scheme Karnataka; Mr. Madan, Chief Operating Officer of The Akshaya Patra Foundation; Chef Rajesh from MTR Foods and Ms. Sunetra Roday. The judging panel also included six children from close by Government and private schools. The dishes were evaluated based on parameters like use of local ingredients, nutritional value, size of each portion, and taste.

The best dish selected by the judges was the ragi ladoo by organic farmers K Kallappa and his wife, Sumangala, who had travelled from Bellary to take part in the event. Describing their tasty creation (which was made of sprouted ragi, moong, wheat and jaggery ), Kallappa said, “The idea was to make something nutritious as well as ensure that it takes longer to digest so that children don’t feel hungry. Ragi is rich in calcium, battles anemia and has high fiber content whereas jaggery is rich in minerals such as iron. It’s disheartening to see rice and sugar taking over millets and jaggery which are actually ten times more nutritious. And that’s why we decided to show their benefits through our recipe.”

Some of the other top dishes chosen by Akshaya Patra and the judges were pumpkin chutney, jackfruit-millet pulao, soyabean dal, tomato rice, and will be adapted for bulk production. Besides these, almost all the recipes have the potential to be replicated in the mid-day meal decentralised kitchens.

Speaking on the event Ms. Vijayalakshmi, Assistant Director, Mid-Day Meal Scheme Karnataka said, “In over 32 years of service, I have never witnessed such an event. We now know of a large variety of things we can locally procure that schools to incorporate in their menus. We could also replicate this idea at the district level wherein women cooks can come and exchange recipes. This would highly benefit our children.”