Ratna can single handedly clean the 2 tonnes of boiled rice that Akshaya Patra’s Mangalore kitchen uses everyday. That amounts to approximately 50 bags, each one containing around 50kgs of rice. It is a part of Ratna’s job to make sure that all that rice is cleaned thoroughly before cooking.

She says people always ask her why she goes to so much trouble. Her husband co-owns a boat and is a successful fisherman, so why the need to work so hard?

“I tell them,” says Ratna, “that it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to know I do this for children. My work means a lot to me. This is something that is all my own, and I love my job,” she says with a radiant smile.

Before a mechanised rice cleaner was installed, she used to clean all the rice by hand, sifting through bag after bag in preparation for the following day’s cooking. It has become much easier for her now that there is a mechanised machine, but she explains that there is still a second round of cleaning to be done. “We have to make sure there are no particles at all in the grains,” she says. “Children won’t like finding them in the food. We have to be very thorough.”

“When we went to buy a vehicle to make commuting for our staff easier and the owner of the vehicle realised we were from Akshaya Patra,” says Mr. Subramanyam, “he refused to take any money from us.” Such good will and kindness, he adds, stems from the fact that we serve nearly 1.3* lakh (130,000) children in Bellary district everyday without fail. Not only that, but we have also helped provide relief for thousands of flood victims in the area.

How is the logistics of distributing and preparing exactly the right amount of food for so many children managed? Mr. Subramanyam, who handles those logistics, among many others, expands on the process:

“All of the nearly 575 schools are mapped into approximately 21 routes. Each route has a specific name and number of schools. We have one food van for each route, and the van is accompanied by a route supervisor,” he says. These route supervisors gather information on the ground from each school, including what the projected attendance rate might be for the following day. From this raw data, charts are prepared in the evening to determine the amount of food that needs to be packed into each van for the following day. The distribution supervisor then collates the data from all routes and gives the information to the head of production who will then know exactly how much food to prepare for the following day.

A meeting is held for procuring vegetables every week, says Mr. Subramanyam and fresh produce is brought in once every two days from surrounding districts such as Belgaum. “There aren’t enough vegetables in Bellary alone to meet our requirements,” adds Mr. Subramanyam. The Bellary kitchen requires around 4.5 tonnes of vegetables each day.

Mr. Subramanyam, who previously worked in the Foundation’s Hubli kitchen before coming to Bellary, has been a part of Akshaya Patra’s family for nearly four years. So thorough is he in his approach, that he has analysed everything from the trends of school attendance rates to the patterns of food consumption for each month. But he attributes the success and smooth running of the program to the people that make up Akshaya Patra.

“It all happens through good work and co-ordination of everyone involved,” he says.

*As on April 2011