World Food Day was declared by UN in 1945, to be observed on 16th of October every year. With an important goal of spreading awareness on issues behind poverty and hunger, every year UN adopts a theme for this day. The theme is intended to highlight the areas that needs action to provide a resolution to the situation related to poverty and hunger.

The theme for the current year being “agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world” recognizing the role agricultural cooperatives play in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger. An FAO document gives a complete account of how cooperatives contribute and their importance. Please click the link for same.

Click here to read more Akshaya Patra Kitchen Garden: En-route to Quality Nutrition

Adopting many measures as per the themes such as ‘food and nutrition‘, ‘the right to food‘, ‘united against hunger‘ are quintessential for India due to the hunger crisis in the country. 2011 hunger statistics declare India in state of emergency yet again and India’s score is same as it was in 1996, even though there has been overall decline, decline itself is marginal. There are many initiatives adopted by the government and by philanthropic organisations in India to over come the issue. However, this obviously is not sufficient.

Akshaya Patra started in 2000 with a simple thought that children must get education and hungry children cannot really focus on education and it works against physical and mental abilities of the child to sit in classroom when hungry. It was decided that Akshaya Patra will feed children in schools thus attracting more children to school and retaining them in school through regular one hot nutritious meal on every school day.

Today Akshaya Patra serves mid-day-meals to over 1.3 million children and envisions feeding 5 million children every day by 2020.

We really wish that many more initiatives are taken up by the government and every individual in the society as it is our social responsibility to ensure that our fellowmen have their rights assured. We extend our hands to organisations that need support in running services similar to Akshaya Patra.

We really hope that we as a nation see a light of the day when hunger has been eradicated in India and we hope that our service is not even required by 2030!!

Join such causes, support Akshaya Patra and be the catalyst. Donate today and do your bit on World Food Day!!

Lush green farm, chirping sparrows, farmers busy reaping – this is just another country-side farm but with a difference!

Inflation making the headlines combined with the unseasonal rains, increased vegetable prices and thereby increased cost of cooking, is a story every household in the country is familiar with. For The Akshaya Patra Foundation which feeds millions of children everyday, the impact is all the more challenging. To address the situation to an extent, The Akshaya Patra Foundation runs an organic farm 55kms away from Jaipur. The kitchen garden programme is a pilot project; the land was taken on lease in April 2010 and dehydration and green house have been set up.

The 15 acres of land yields about 90 tonnes of vegetables a year. These vegetables are then dehydrated and stored in the go-downs. During the off-season, when the prices of vegetables soar, these vegetables are used for cooking, thus bringing about cost efficiency and at the same time ensuring that the continuously given nutritive food.

The health advantage comes from the fact that the meal is cooked from a variety of vegetables that are not available during the off-season and also because these vegetables are grown by kitchen garden methodology. Spinach, cabbage, carrot, broccoli, radish and peas are grown on a rotation basis all through out the year. Manure which is acquired from the Vermi-compost ensures a good yield. The Neem extracts are used as insecticides which alter insect’s behavior or life processes in ways that can be extremely subtle. Eventually, however, the insect can no longer feed or breed or metamorphose and can cause no further damage.

In addition to adopting kitchen garden, the farmers in the nearby areas are also educated and trained on it. Many of them have already started implementing kitchen garden practices. The produce from these farmers is then bought by Akshaya Patra. Hansraj Mali, a local farmer says in addition to reaping the benefits of kitchen garden, they are reaping better financial outcomes, “Since Akshaya Patra buys the produce directly from us and we are spared from the work of transporting all the produce and finding a vendor. Moreover we save on the money which we used to pay as commissions.” A talk with the farmers reveals that they have resorted to using cow dung as manure and say that the soil structure has improved. A few years ago they used fertilizers which during the course of time had a negative impact on the soil fertility.

The farm is still in its inception phase and has long way ahead. But with a project like this, the organisation is setting a foot to address the challenge of classroom hunger at the same time ensuring quality nutrition around the year with no compromise, be it inflation or missing monsoon.