When you track conversations on blogs, forums, and social networks in India, evidently yet surprisingly you find many discussions are related to social development. These discussions are also criticisms directly from the general public on various issues, policies and implementation. It is profound knowledge when one gets an opportunity as an organisation to find out that there are more people that are worried about a cause you are striving to work for. When we see that the people on these platforms discuss about mid day meals scheme, education, hunger and children; a non-profit like Akshaya Patra is overwhelmed.

 We come across many such discussions on various forums these days and such discussions do instil our faith and helps us make arduous efforts to reach our goal. It is a confirmation to us that people know about Akshaya Patra and that they are spreading our message. This link will take you to one such brainstorm that we hope occurs every where as by such forums, not only people get to know about Akshaya Patra but also many more NGO’s and individuals get into the groove and take on issues that is really threat to India today. Hunger, infant mortality, education to name a few…

The following was a comment by Mr. Karthikeyan A on LinkedIn about Akshaya Patra.

“The best Public Services are available in Finland and even their schooling system is praised all over the world, We also know their innovation capabilities through some brands like Nokia, Kone ….etc

In both Sweden and Finland, free school meals are offered to all pupils. This practice has been in place since 1948 in Finland, and was introduced to Sweden in 1973.

India 

The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India. 120 million children are covered under the Midday Meal Scheme in India, making it the largest school lunch programme in the world. Originally only in the states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, it has now been expanded to all parts of India after a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of India on November 28, 2001.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation runs the world’s largest NGO-run midday meal programme serving freshly cooked hot meals to over 1.2 million underprivileged children in 8 states of India. Akshaya Patra works with part subsidies from the government and partly by donations from individuals, philanthropists and corporates. Through Akshaya Patra, it takes only $31 to feed 2 children for a whole year.

The scheme involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are to protect children from hunger and malnutrition, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, and social empowerment by providing employment for women. Due to the immense cost of catering for so many schoolchildren and the rapid growth of the poor sending their children to school, the government has raised funding for the programme from Rs. 3010 crore to Rs. 4813 crore (Rs 48 billion, $1.2 billion USD) in 2006-2007 ……”

To read more of the discussion, click here.

Find us on LinkedIn @ link.

It was in 2005, that The Akshaya Patra Foundation began feeding children in the city of Mangalore in the district of Dakshina Kannada. At that time children from two schools enjoyed the hot nutritious mid-day meals. As the word-of-mouth began to spread, more schools in the region wanted the mid-day meals served by the Foundation. In spite of challenges related to space and technology, the Akshaya Patra kitchen began functioning to the maximum capacity by feeding more than 5,000 children. It involved a lot of man power. In about a year’s time, in 2006-2007, The Akshaya Patra Foundation shifted its kitchen to another rented space. The shift ensured that a few of the processes could be mechanised and today the kitchen is a semi-automated one.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation at Mangalore feeds more than 25,000 children in 145 schools. The Unit President, Sri Karunya Sagar Dasa, says, “We reach out to schools in a radius of 30 Kms. Schools in Talapady, Mulki and even to B C Road in the neighbouring district of Bantwal. The menu consists of boiled rice, sambar , rasam, tomato rice, pulao and sweets like payasa.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation being sensitive to the needs of the regional palate includes the traditional food of each region in its mid-day meal menu. In the coastal region of Karnataka boiled rice is the staple diet. To feed the thousands of children, Akshaya Patra’s kitchen in Mangalore cooks rice in about 20 cycles and sambar in 3 cycles. This involves the workers to come as early as 4:00 a.m., and if there is payasa on the menu, they have to come an hour earlier. In spite of the early working hours, the employees who work at the kitchen do not complain. They say, “We understand that our work helps thousands of children.”

Ratna J Suvarna, an employee who has been with Akshaya Patra for over six years says, “As I live on the banks of the Gurupur river, I have to come by boat which runs at half-hour intervals. As I climb from the boat, I am greeted by many children who go to the local government schools and all that they ask me is about the menu of the day since they know that I work for Akshaya Patra.”

Today as thousands of children relish the mid-day meal and talk about it at their homes, the good word about the contribution by the Foundation has reached far and wide. Schools from places like Udupi and Moodabidri have requested The Akshaya Patra Foundation serve mid-day meals in their schools. But due to constraints of space and also Government permission, the kitchen has not been able to support the request. As in the words of Karunya Sagar Dasa, “Our immediate need is a sanction from the Government for allotment of a land so that we can build a three-tier centralised kitchen capable of feeding more than 100,000 children.”

*Statistics as of July 12, 2012