Hunger is a pressing issue affecting numerous countries across the globe, and India is no exception. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, India faces significant challenges in eradicating hunger and ensuring food security for all its citizens. However, amidst these challenges, there are organisations that are making a remarkable difference in fighting hunger, and one such organisation is The Akshaya Patra Foundation. This blog explores the prevailing issue of hunger in India and sheds light on the incredible contributions of Akshaya Patra in combating this crisis.

The State of Hunger in India

India, despite being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, struggles with hunger and malnutrition. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), India is home to the largest undernourished population globally, with approximately 189.2 million people suffering from hunger. The situation becomes even more alarming when we consider the vulnerability of children, who are the most affected by this crisis. Lack of proper nutrition hampers their growth and development, affecting their physical and cognitive abilities, and ultimately hindering their chances of leading a productive life.

Akshaya Patra’s Mission

Akshaya Patra, established in the year 2000, is a non-profit organisation that strives to eliminate classroom hunger and improve the overall well-being of children in India. The Foundation operates on the belief that no child should be deprived of education due to hunger. Their core initiative involves providing nutritious mid-day meals to school children, with a dual aim of addressing hunger and increasing school attendance.

Contributions of The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Mid-Day Meal Programme: The flagship programme of The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the Mid-Day Meal Programme, which serves as a significant intervention to combat hunger and malnutrition among school-going children. The Foundation prepares and delivers freshly cooked, nutritious meals to government schools across India. Through this program, they not only provide sustenance to children but also help in increasing their concentration levels and overall academic performance.

Scale and reach: Akshaya Patra’s operations are truly impressive, with a robust infrastructure that enables them to prepare and deliver millions of meals every day. They leverage state-of-the-art kitchens, adhering to stringent quality and hygiene standards. With a network of centralised and decentralised kitchens, the Foundation serves meals to schools in urban and rural areas, ensuring that children across the country have access to nutritious food.

Empowering women: The Foundation’s initiatives also focus on empowering women through collaboration and employment. By employing local women as cooks and kitchen staff, Akshaya Patra creates employment opportunities and promotes gender equality. This not only helps in community development but also enables the Foundation to sustain its operations efficiently.

Disaster relief: In times of crisis such as natural disasters or emergencies, Akshaya Patra extends its support by providing meals to affected communities. They have been instrumental in offering food relief during floods, earthquakes and other calamities, thereby ensuring that the affected populations have access to essential sustenance.

Feed to defeat hunger

You can help NGOs in India like Akshaya Patra achieve their mission by contributing towards their programmes. You can donate or volunteer with the NGO to weave the fabric of positive change in the world.

Billions of people worldwide lack adequate access to food and hunger continues to claim more lives than conflict. Despite our increasing food production, the threat of hunger and malnutrition still exists.

This World Hunger Day, on 28 May, here are a few things you can do to address hunger:

Donate Food: Many organisations dedicated to feeding initiatives welcome donations of food items that are largely non-perishable, such as grains, oil, and specific fruits and vegetables. Then they are given out to those in need. The next time you go for groceries, buy a little extra that can be donated.

Initiate a Conversation: You can talk to people on why an issue as grave as hunger must be addressed and form a group, raise money and then donate it to an NGO that provides food to the hungry.

Volunteer: Every city organises soup kitchens (a soup kitchen is a place where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price), where mostly one-pot meals are cooked or have organisations like us where meals are prepared throughout the year to serve certain vulnerable sections of society. You can volunteer in the preparation, distribution or other activities connected to the cause.

Monetary Donation: Every penny matters. You can extend financial support to charitable organisations that have made a commitment to address hunger. Every donation you make in support of an organisation like us, is used for serving meals to government school children, pregnant and lactating mothers at anganwadi centres and elderly mothers living in ashrams, to ensure that they have adequate food every day.

How your support to an organisation like Akshaya Patra can change the hunger scenario

Akshaya Patra was founded in 2000 with the straightforward idea to provide food for students in order to increase enrolment and retain them in school through a hot, nourishing meal every day. Currently, 2 million children are served and we aim to feed 3 million children by 2025.

When you support us, you are not only helping us serve meals to children from backgrounds with limited opportunities, but also helping them pursue their education and dreams and break the poverty cycle. This aids us to work towards a sustainable solution to end hunger.

Extend your support to The Akshaya Patra Foundation and help address hunger on this World Hunger Day.

Donate online!