Each beneficiary of The Akshaya Patra Foundation mid-day meal scheme builds a special bond with the organisation through every meal. The food that reaches over 1.39 million school children across nine states and 22 locations in India is prepared with great care. We have read about how the organisation meticulously prepares the nutritious mid-day meal and takes it to 10,631 schools across the country every day. Now let’s see what the children have to say about why they go to school.

Sarita, a 15-year-old from Karnataka, has been a beneficiary of the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme since she was five years old. According to her, school and the mid-day meal have given her the opportunity to be healthy and have an ambition. She aspires to be a lawyer. She gets to learn History and Civics at school which are essential subjects to achieve her goal.

“I want to change the face of law in our country by fighting for the truth alone. And school is helping me be a better person every day. The free meal that we get in school engenders a sense of gratitude in me that there is someone out there who helps us at every step in life,” says Sarita. As for Rajput Pritesh Mahesh Bhai from Gujarat, the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal is better than homemade food! “I love Dal Dhokli and Moong Khichdi,” says Pritesh. (Both are Gujarati specialties made out of lentils). The breakfast in Pritesh’s household is usually a single roti (Indian flat bread) from the previous night. Hence the children depend on the mid-day meal.

For school dropouts, the mid-day meal is a great incentive to come back to school. Tanku and Sankar Behra from Odisha dropped out of school at a young age due to financial difficulties in their family. A few years later, they joined a Government Primary School where Akshaya Patra provides mid-day meals. Explaining their family situation, their teacher Prabhamani says, “Their mother and older brother manage the house doing menial jobs. Tanku and Shankar have lunch at school which is of great relief to their mother. Their health is much better now and school has taught them to maintain personal hygiene as well. This one meal from Akshaya Patra has motivated them to come to school.”

While most children go to school for the mid-day meal and for education, some others go for the pleasure of escaping their difficult lives. Sadhana, a girl aged 14, helps her mother who works as a domestic assistant in households in Chhattisgarh. Sadhana loves school because it gives her the opportunity to be herself and learn new things. It’s a place where she meets her friends and gets a break from her hardships. She wants to grow up to be a teacher.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is making a small difference in the lives of millions of families in India. The organisation aims to reach out to more such families who are in need.

A student duo from a business school in Bangalore recently visited an Akshaya Patra Kitchen and a Government School where the Foundation provides mid-day meals to student. Here is an account of their experience as volunteers for the organisation.

First things first, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to work in a place that has provided us with a glimpse on the challenges faced by low income households of the society and the current education system in our country among the underprivileged. It has also changed our perspective on how nutrition can play a major role in every child’s life.

Here are some of the insights that we gathered while understanding the operations at Akshaya Patra. The visit to the kitchen was indeed a memorable one. We were happy to see that the food prepared in the kitchen was of highest quality, hygienic, nutritious and cooked with immense care. The kitchen was none like we have seen before, the cleanliness and the detail to hygiene while preparing the food was amazing, to say the least. We would like to specially thank the facilitator of the visit to the kitchen who gave us a very detailed tour regarding the kitchen and its operations. Being management students, this was like an education tour as well, where we could witness few of the concepts that we are taught at the Business School.

At the Government High School, Sarakki, where we taught children for three weeks, we were able to better understand how students were benefited by the mid-day meal programme implemented by The Akshaya Patra Foundation. The survey on food quality revealed that a majority of the students was highly satisfied with the food provided to them for lunch. They even went on to state that it tasted better than the food prepared at home. Most of the students were happy that the food was cost-free for them and some confirmed that they attended school just because the afternoon meal was served. This goes on to show how much the mid-day meal program has helped these students to get an education. Kudos to Akshaya Patra!

As a suggestion, we would recommend that any new volunteers coming to Akshaya Patra should get involved with the field activities at the schools. True learning and value addition, we believe would come only at Government Schools. As the volunteers get exposed to the struggles these students face, they would definitely make a difference in whatever little ways possible by them.

Lastly, we would like to thank the school for being very comforting and tending to our needs. We wish Akshaya Patra the very best for the future and hope it continues to serve children and help change lives of the deprived.

With regards,
Vishak EB and Sampath S
PGDM students at Xavier’s Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore
27-Jan-14