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.”

Axalta Coating Systems has partnered with Akshaya Patra to sponsor the mid-day meals for students of the community near their Savli manufacturing plant in Gujarat. These meals will be catered from the Foundation’s kitchen in Vadodara. The company which focuses exclusively on coatings is a global leader in providing innovative, beautiful and sustainable solutions to their customers.

Speaking on this campaign Vinay Rajadhyaksha, Managing Director of Axalta’s operations in India, said, “Community development and associating ourselves with social causes which ensure sustainable development are part of Axalta’s values as a company. We are proud that we can contribute to society, and especially to the communities where we operate, by associating ourselves with an NGO that supports children and provides some of the resources they need for their education and, in turn, for them to contribute to the nation as they grow into adults. Reaching out to children in Gujarat with nutritious meals through Akshaya Patra helps us give back to the society in the best possible manner.”

This joint initiative between Akshaya Patra and Axalta is one of great merit, and will have a positive impact on the growth and development of this community where they both function.

Expressing the Foundation’s happiness over this partnership Jaganmohan Krishna Dasa, President of Akshaya Patra Gujarat said, “We at Akshaya Patra want to transform lives of millions of children across India. With our vision that no child shall be deprived of education because of hunger, we are moving towards our ambitious goal of reaching five million children by 2020. I thank Axalta Coating Systems for lending its hand in this journey. Its partnership further strengthens our determination to serve children better.”