The state-of-the-art kitchens of The Akshaya Patra Foundation have a character of their own. Of the many factors that derive its character, the most significant is – “the journey of a million smiles begins here”. These kitchens not only cook food for 1.3 million children; but they also cook a serving of happiness with each meal. This is the reason we call our kitchens “The Happiness Factory”.

There is a story behind every meal we cook. In order to continue this journey of smiles, Akshaya Patra ensures that there is no compromise on quality and hygiene at any point, right from procurement of raw materials to delivery of the hot nutritious food. Kitchens of Akshaya Patra employ various measures to ensure hygiene, quality, and variety of meals of served, along with increasing the efficiency of kitchen process. Some of the key measures are:

• To ensure fresh food is supplied, efficiency concepts such as Kaizen, 5S and Six Sigma are adopted at the kitchens, which also results in increased capacity of producing up to 1,50,000 nutritious meals a day.
• To ensure cost effectiveness, food items like grains and spices are sourced through central procurement teams, while perishable food items like vegetables, fruits and dairy products are sourced locally.
• To ensure that the food is prepared hygienically, Total Quality Management (TQM) tools are used to comply with the ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety and Management System Standards.
• Furthermore, hygiene is ensured through minimal human handling of food.
• Meals are prepared as per regional preferences ensuring, that the nutritious food served is also tasty to the palette.
• Desserts and sweets are served during special occasions – a sweetened rice pudding- Pongal, in South India and a milk based dessert, Kheer is served to the children in North India.

At Akshaya Patra, the commitment to perform with precision has become plausible through technical marvels such as:

• Rice cauldron that cooks close to 100kgs of fresh rice every 20 minutes.
• Sambar cauldron has the capacity of 1200 litres that can feed 6000 children.
• 27 varieties of sambar recipes are available for the children.
• Vegetables in the sambar are minced thoroughly to make it chewable for the tiny tots.
• The roti making machine that can produce up to 60,000 rotis in an hour. 
• Pilferage avoided through monitoring the delivery of the food to schools. Global Positioning Devices (GPS) have been installed in the meal delivery vehicles.
• Vehicles are heat insulated, dust free and can deliver 1,50,000 meals within 6 hours.

The main focus of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) is to provide nutritious and balanced diet to underprivileged children. ICDS had conducted ‘Nutrition Week Celebration’ and ‘Iodine Awareness Programme’ at Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, which was inaugurated by District Collector- D. Jagannathan.

Collector D. Jagannathan began his speech by stating- “It is the duty of mothers to feed their babies with nutritious diet for the babies to lead a hale and healthy life,” He went on to add- “Every one should know that nurturing a child in a healthy manner is not an easy task, but it is necessary to make children not only good students but also healthy children, for which they need a nutritious and balanced diet”.

Interestingly, The Akshaya Patra Foundation shares similar sentiment, and is actively working towards achieving Millennium Development Goals. With the vision of “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”, Akshaya Patra is working towards eliminating child hunger and increasing literacy quotient among the children of the underprivileged section.

Set foot in June 2000, by feeding 1500 children in 5 schools of Bangalore, as a part of the mid-day meal program; today it has reached a commendable 1.3 million children across India. Currently, Akshaya Patra operates in 19 locations, across 9 states of India, and covers 9,075 schools to provide freshly cooked meal to the children on all school days. It was a milestone achievement for Akshaya Patra, as the Foundation served its billionth meal in August 2012. It aims to reach out to 5 million children by 2020.

Speaking on the occasion of celebrating the billionth meal, the founding member of Akshaya Patra, Mohan Das Pai maintained that “this organization is the only one of its kind that does not want to exist in future because it envisions a future that does not require it.” This not only inspired the audience but also reinstated the mission in a more profound manner.

Come forward and join hands with The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Be the reason for a hunger free and educated tomorrow.

Reference: The Hindu, 5^th November 2012