Foundation laid for first high-tech mega kitchen in Telangana.

Akshaya Patra and the Infosys Foundation are a step closer to building Telangana’s first high-tech, Centralised Mega Kitchen in Khandi, as they laid its foundation stone on December 7, 2016. The Infosys Foundation has donated Rs 18.03 crores, generously committing to cover the entire construction cost of this kitchen, which will use highly advanced technology. Over 1,00,000 children in Telangana will avail be fed nutritious mid-day meals prepared in this kitchen, beginning the next academic year. 

The Bhoomi Puja was attended by Shri T Harish Rao, Honourable Minister for Irrigation, Marketing & Legislative Affairs of Telangana; Smt Sudha Murty, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation;  Shri K. Prabhakar Reddy, Member of Parliament, Medak;  Shri C Prabhakar, MLA, Sangareddy; Smt Ranjeev Acharya, IAS – Principal Secretary, Education Department; Shri K Manicka Raj, IAS - District Collector, Sangareddy;  Shri  Jagadeeshwar, IAS – Secretary of Government, Women, Children, Disabled & Senior Citizens Department; Smt Viziendira Boyi, IAS -  Director, Women & Children Development Department;  Smt Lanka Chandrakala, DEO, Sangareddy, Smt P Umarani, Sarpanch, Sangareddy; and Shri G Krishnan, IAS – Director School Education.

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Knowing about Akshaya Patra Kitchens

The Akshaya Patra Foundation provides mid-day meal to millions of children through its kitchens in 24 locations and 10 states in India.  The cooking process is conducted in two kinds of kitchen unit: Centralised kitchen and decentralised kitchen. These Akshaya Patra Kitchens have adopted Six Sigma Methodologies.

The centralised kitchens of Akshaya Patra are large kitchen units that generally have the capacity to cook up to 100,000 meals. These kitchens serve a number of schools located around the unit. To ensure hygiene and safety these kitchen are automated. Akshaya Patra decentralised kitchens are the ideal solution to cook and serve children in locations with difficult geographical terrain and improper road connectivity. The Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) under the regulation and supervision of The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s kitchen process and operations module run these decentralised kitchens.

All kitchens run by The Akshaya Patra Foundation follow a planned menu. The Akshaya Patra centralised kitchens are equipped with cauldrons, trolleys, rice chutes, dal/sambar tanks, cutting boards, knives and other similar equipment. The menu caters to the specific locale palates of the regions where food is served. The kitchens in North India are equipped with rice cauldrons and dal cauldrons. As roti is an integral part of the North Indian meal, the kitchens are equipped with roti making machines. The kitchens in South India are equipped with rice and sambar cauldrons.

Several measures, rules and regulations and standard procedures are meticulously observed continuously to ensure that children get the best food every day. There are quality assurance procedures during procurement of raw materials, standards in Storage, Handling, Preservation of raw materials, rules and regulations to ensure quality and safety during cooking, standards measures in food packing and transportation, steps in delivery and post-delivery and continual improvement methods.

The objective of The Akshaya Patra Foundation is to provide nutritious mid-day meal to all the beneficiary children every day on time without fail. That is the foremost priority as Akshaya Patra strives towards achieving its mission of feeding 5 million children by 2020.

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Akshaya Patra providing nutrition every day

Mrinmay Malakar is a grade five student at the Khudradadhi Lower Primary School in Assam. Every day early in the morning Mrinmay begins his day by taking Munnu, the family’s only goat, out to graze.

Mrinmay’s father works as a labourer, and does a secondary job as a flower seller to supplement the family income. His father is the only wage earner in the family. When his father is able to work most days of the month, the family earns about Rs. 5,000 that month, however if work has been scarce then he earns about Rs. 2,000 in the month to feed the whole family.

Mrinmay’s school provides the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal. This has proven to be of huge benefit to Mrinmay and his family. At home the family only eats dal, rice or pitha (a type of bread). At school, through the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal, Mrinmay gets the nutritious vegetables and lentils that his ten-year old body requires, to grow healthily.

Mrinmay’s favourite part of Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal is the kheer, khichdi and vegetable pulao that the Foundation serves on Saturdays and Wednesdays, something that Mrinmay does not get at home.

Mrinmay’s life is simple. The family does not own a television so Mrinmay spends his free time playing cricket or hide-and-seek. But often Mrinmay’s free time also goes helping his father sell flowers. Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal has helped Mrinmay stay healthy, as well as provided some relief to his family’s burden by taking care of the daily nutrition for the growing boy. By giving Mrinmay an incentive to attend school regularly too, this is an opportunity for the fate of Mrinmay’s family to change for the better.

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It takes very little to give a lot!

By teaming up with The Akshaya Patra Foundation you can feed a child for an entire year with just Rs 750 and ensure that the child stays in school entire year. Though this seems impossible, the Foundation, with the help of the Government of India, has devised a means to make this a sustainable operation. Using this model, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has reached out to over 1.39 million children across 10 states in India on every school day, providing them with the tasty, nutritious mid-day meal.

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Hacking away the issues at Hackathon

Akshaya Patra teamed up with Code for India (a non-profit organisation that partners with other non-profit ventures to provide engineering solutions in the better interests of the marginalized sections of society in India) in a fascinating sequel to the Hackathon conducted in October 2013.

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Preparing yourself for Pre School

We’re entering May, and before you know it, schools will be opening their doors once again to welcome children back at the start of a new academic year. For many parents sending their children to school for the first time, this can be a heart-breaking, nerve-wracking experience. Though it may be tough to reconcile yourself with the idea that your little baby is leaving the fold to join the real world, there are some huge advantages to sending your child into a regular school setting as soon as they are ready.

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Another step in the right direction

Following the trajectory of The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s movement across the country, it pleased me greatly to see that the Foundation has opened yet another kitchen at Rourkela, in Odisha. The Akshaya Patra Foundation already has two kitchens in Odisha, one at Puri and the other at Nayagarh, but this third kitchen is expected to help fill in a much needed gap in the state.

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Child Education in India – ‘A Candle in the Wind’

‘The only work a child should do is homework.’ On the surface an easy concept, but one that is often moved to the backburner by low income families in favour of making a little extra money and feeding a few more bellies at home.

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Six years and still loving it!

The Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme is intended to not just provide children with ‘Food for Education’ that will encourage them to attend classes, it is also meant to make them healthy and strong so that they can achieve any future they want.

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The Joy of Giving

The Akshaya Patra Organisation is wholly dependent on the good will of its benefactors. This good will comes in the form of volunteering, publicity and most importantly, financial aid. Akshaya Patra needs access to a great deal of funding to bring to life its long term, large scale mission of taking the mid-day meal scheme to 5 million government school children across India every day, by 2020.

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A Charitable Resolution

The New Year is just hours away and it’s time to start reflecting on your resolutions for the coming year.

For some of us it will be to hit the gym, for others it will be to commit to breaking bad habits like alcohol or narcotics, or even just cutting back on the chocolate. And for a few it will be committing to serving a higher cause than themselves, to giving back to society, and trying to change a life. 

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Inspiring us, every day

We’re feeding 1.3 million children every day, and have our eye set on feeding 5 million by 2020. There may be a long way to go, but we at The Akshaya Patra Organisation believe that every drop in the ocean counts. These are some of the inspiring stories we have come across that gives us the strength to carry on.

 

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The Akshaya Patra Foundation and Vasudev Adiga’s Initiative to Provide a Million Meals for Children

VasudevAdiga’s, a popular chain of restaurants in Karnataka, has committed to raise funds to support The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO which serves mid day meals to government school children in India. VasudevAdiga’s aims to fund one million meals in collaboration with its customers, partners and employees.

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Celebrating International Girl Child Day on Today, Oct 11,2012 - Akshaya Patra Foundation

 

Celebrating International Girl Child Day , Today, Oct 11,2012.

Safa Farooq  is a grade 2 student at the Government Higher Primary School in Bengre Kasba located in the city of Mangalore. She eagerly waits for the mid day meal served at the school every day.

Her mother shares “Considering the family’s economic condition the mid day meal is a blessing for Safa. The child often talks about the variety in the menu. By her explanations, we know that she likes the Payasam and the Pulao the most. Not even once has she complained about the food.”

Safa is too young to understand the family’s economic condition or the impact of the mid day meal on her health. But the smiles, healthy features, and her enthusiasm to attend school, are what stands as a testimony to the success of mid day meals by Akshaya Patra.

Read More Mid day Meal Programme Addressing the Twin Problem of Hunger and Education

Akshaya Patra Twitter and Akshaya Patra Facebook

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Theatre for Cause in aid of Akshaya Patra Foundation

MAKING A MAN OF AN ASS A CHILDREN'S PLAY : For more information visit: http://www.akshayapatra.org/theatre-for-a-cause

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