A child’s smile is a treat to every eye and when it reflects good health it’s even more fulfilling. Reason being this, The Akshaya Patra Foundation is on a constant thrive to provide wholesome and nutritious meals to underserved children across the country. The vision of the not-for profit clearly states that ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’ This vision was a result of Srila Prabhupada’s heart wrenching experience when he saw a group of children fighting with stray dogs over scraps of food in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta. More than a decade’s service has led Akshaya Patra to understand that it’s not just enough to provide food, it is more important to sustain the hopeful smiles of the young hearts.
It has been witnessed that mid-day meal is the only wholesome meal of the day for most Government school children.
Akshaya Patra understands that each meal carries a unique story with it and thus puts all its efforts in preparing and providing clean, hygienic and nutritious meal to each of its beneficiary. The Foundation also takes care of the taste factor while preparing meals for the young hearts and thus it ensures that the menu of each region caters to the local palate so that children can relish their meal. Currently, Akshaya Patra is operational in 24 locations covering all the four directions of the vast landscape. As roti (Indian flat bread) is staple to North India, it becomes an integral part of the mid-day meal served in the northern locations. Similarly, rice is staple to South Indian cuisine and thus gets its due place in the mid-day meal menu of the southern locations.
When children eat wholeheartedly it gets reflected in their health, academics and co-curricular activities. They actively participate in various activities that sharpen their abilities and skills to make them confident, responsible and self-driven citizens. Akshaya Patra by itself would not have been able to achieve the scale of feeding 1.4 million children each day. The support from Government, benevolent donors and supporters has enabled the Foundation to reach its current bandwidth of providing nutritious meal each day. The result of that can be seen in the happy smiles and determined aspirations of the beneficiaries. Stories of Hope will take you to a tour of happy smiles that challenge all odds.
Support Akshaya Patra to upkeep these healthy smiles. @ https://www.akshayapatra.org/onlinedonations
Follow us: @AkshayaPatra on Twitter | TheAkshayapatraFoundation on Facebook |
0 comments:
Post a Comment