Giving for Charity Changes Everything! Read the Story

Ask us what’s the most meaningful aspect of our work and we would be happy to shout out our answer – feeding India’s school children nutritious and healthy meals every day.

In the state that promotes itself as 'One State, Many Worlds' to the globe, The Akshaya Patra Foundation was born with a mission to curb classroom hunger. Karnataka is not only rich in history but is also home to over 64 million people. While this number can boast of manpower and productivity, we also ought to focus on crafting a healthy future for children in Karnataka.

In an effort to make this state a better place for school children, Akshaya Patra, a charitable trust in Bangalore has implemented its Mid-Day Meal Programme across the country to feed the hungry and provide freshly-cooked meals to over 4 lakh students in Karnataka. 

Everyone has a beautiful story

Recently, one of our representatives from Akshaya Patra visited a beneficiary school in Jyothipura, Bengaluru and came back with an enthusiastic story of a girl studying in Standard VIII.

Meet Kirti. She is simple, innocent and full of life. Inspired by dance shows on television, Kirti has built a dream for herself – to become a professional dancer. In fact, to mould her dancing skills, she travels to Hoskote located 15 km away from her residence only to learn the art from her master. While this is not a common dream for a girl whose family depends on daily wages, Kirti receives complete support from her father, who is a construction worker in Bengaluru.

Good music is a requisite for great dance. When we spoke to her about her interests, she said, “I love songs with peppy tunes and would love to participate in competitions.” Although dancing defines her, Kirti does not compromise on studies. She is a lover of math and enjoys solving puzzles and math problems. According to her, problem-solving gives her the skills to tackle everyday concerns.

Is there anything else that motivates Kirti to attend school? Mid-day meals have encouraged many families to send their children to schools because they are assured of one wholesome meal. Kirti loves Akshaya Patra’s food as it helps her concentrate on studies and also gives her strength to dance. Her story shines bright. 

How impactful is Mid-Day Meal Programme?

According to a report in Times of India, Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme in Karnataka has witnessed an increase of school enrolment in the last two years – growth of over 6,000 children in 2015-16 as compared to 2013-14 and provides meals to 678 schools as compared to 568 in 2013-14.  Above all, the Foundation focuses on empowering children through education by eliminating classroom hunger.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Karnatakas-dropout-rate-dips-as-midday-meals-lure-kids/articleshow/51690096.cms

Although Akshaya Patra receives significant support from the government to address hunger among children in India, it is collective support from donors that has stabilized its service.

To make this initiative more effective, you can sponsor a child’s mid-day meals for a year by contributing only Rs 750.

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5 Ways to Get Involved with Akshaya Patra

Surya is born into a family whose monthly income is not more Rs 3,000. While his father toils to feed the family every day, he knows that someday, Surya would have to attend school to be more self-reliant. At the age of five, he is admitted to the closest government school. His father is motivated to send Surya to school for various reasons—free education, an opportunity to socialise and most importantly, a wholesome and nutritious mid-day meal served every day!

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in India, strives to feed the hungry children everyday by implementing mid-day meal programme in schools across the country. Currently, the Foundation is feeding over 1.5 million government school children in 10 states of India. You can get involved too and experience the journey of eliminating hunger among school children.

Here are five ways to get involved with this children’s NGO that runs the world’s largest school lunch programme:

1. Connect with the purpose: Akshaya Patra, an NGO for children, aims to end classroom hunger by feeding nutritious meals to school children on every school day. In the year 2000, the organisation was founded on the belief that no child should be deprived of education due to hunger and that has been the roadmap of this Foundation’s journey. When you empathise with the cause, you are a step closer to making India a hunger-free country for children.

2. It only costs Rs 750: A young student in a government school gets free lunch for an entire year and that is possible through your small but significant contribution. It costs only Rs 750 to feed a child for a year to ensure that his/ her education is not interrupted. You can donate to charity and also benefit from 100% tax exemption on the donation. Small amounts, when accumulated, greatly enrich children’s lives.

3. Create your own fundraising campaign: While there are many donation options, you also have a choice of creating a personalised online fundraising campaign on the Foundation’s website or on Akshaya Patra's mobile app. Once a campaign is created, you can share it with your friends and together, reach out to more children.

4. Download Akshaya Patra mobile app: The organisation moves along with technology. Its all-new app helps you extend your support while you are on the go—you can create campaigns, donate and stay updated at the tip of your fingers!  The app allows you to search kitchen locations pan India and exhibits the total number of beneficiaries and schools each location is catering to. The mobile app is available on both Android and iOS.

5. Be a volunteer: Giving your time and effort towards a cause can help the society in many ways. When you volunteer with Akshaya Patra, you are not just connected to the cause but you are also exposed to mid-day meal programme and the overall operations of the organisation.

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Why We Need to Be More Ambitious About Food in India?

How many times do we read a bunch of food stories from BuzzFeed or The Condé Nast Traveller? It’s probably one every day or if we are not that really a foodie, a few every week. Stories of food depravity don’t really cross our minds. Isn’t it? India is home to 194.6 million undernourished people, the highest in the world as reported by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This makes up 15% of our population. But the facts about under-fed and hungry kids are way more alarming. While the report did state that the number of underweight children declined from 49.2 per cent in 1990 to 30 per cent in 2013, it’s just not enough. Unless every NGO in India strives to feed every child in India, this situation wouldn’t improve.

There indeed have been improvements through the mid-day meal scheme, tax exemptions to NGOs and various other efforts of the government to feed children in India. Yet one in every four kids is malnourished. Take for instance, in a family of four kids, one kid is probably going without food often.

Let’s take a look at some facts about Indian children:

• About 27 million children are born each year in India. 
• Every fifth child in the world is Indian 
• India has 440 million children – more than the population of North American states 
• Nearly 2 million of these children do not live to the age of five. Reason? Malnourishment.

So how are we feeding these children? It’s disturbing enough that 3,000 children in India are dying every day from poor diet-related ailment. To top that, 24% of world’s under-five deaths are happening in India with lack of food being a major cause. Unfortunately, our higher economic growth has somehow not yielded higher food consumption or better diets. So while overall our rate of malnourished children has declined, we are failing to attempt greater things for feeding the hungry. Wonder if one should be happy that we saved 70% of our children from malnourishment or sad that 30% of them are still under danger?

The need of the hour is to lend a helping hand to fight against world hunger. Each one of us has the power to make a huge difference by supporting in our own little ways by participating in charity fundraising. A small contribution of Rs 750 can put a child through an academic year filled with nutritious mid-day meals in school. Feed the hungry child with one full year of healthy and wholesome meals, and it will go a long way for a child who might have mid-day meal as the only proper meal in his/ her entire day. If this rings a bell with you, donate to The Akshaya Patra Foundation now!

Akshaya Patra is a not for profit organization that runs a mid-day meal programme providing 1.5 million meals to school students across 10 states in India. Join the movement now!

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How Akshaya Patra's Mid-day Meal Programme Supports Education

“Students can’t focus if their stomachs hurt because they are hungry”- Diane Gillen

Children from low income families study in government schools as education is provided free to them. Still a large percentage of children do not attend schools as they can’t concentrate with hungry stomachs. Most of the children accompany their parents to their work places for a meagre income which will enable them to fulfil their hunger. Thus these children end up as a drop-out putting their future at stake.

Acknowledging this burning issue, Akshaya Patra serves mid-day meals in partnership with The Government of India and various State Governments. The organisation feeds 1.5 million school children in 11,360 Government schools and Government-aided schools every day.

The need for an adequate meal

Without adequate food with proper nutritional values, a child cannot concentrate in class and memorize what he is taught. It leads to lower IQ and learning disabilities. The Akshaya Patra mid-day meals meet the nutritional requirements essential for the growth and development of a child. Hot, nutritious and hygienic meals are delivered with prescribed calories. Adequate supply of micro nutrients as iron, folic acid, zinc, fibre, essential fatty acids, calcium, carbohydrates, protein and vitamin A are supplemented through lunch servings with roti, rice khichdi, curd rice, vegetable pulao, mixed vegetable curry, sambar, dal, rasam etc.  Nine varieties of dal, five varieties of pulses, soy chunks and different varieties of nutritious vegetables are added into the sambar. The rice and wheat served, meets adequate standards as prescribed by The Government of India. As the organisation understands that the mid-day meal is the only proper meal of the day for many of the children in a government school, unlimited food with high nutritional value are served.

The procedure to serve a nutritious meal

The vegetables are washed properly and stored in refrigerator to retain its nutritious value. A complete quality inspection is done to meet with Akshaya Patra’s Raw Material Specifications, adopted from the Food Safety Standards Act 2006 (FSSA). All the kitchen equipment are sanitised before usage. All the food items are transferred hot into the vessels untouched by hands.

Each meal is cooked and transported under hygienic conditions by customised delivery vans which transport mid-day meals to various schools at the right time. Meals are delivered in stainless steel containers which keeps food hot and fresh for long intervals. Every vehicle is steam-sterilised before the loading.  The vehicles have a puffed body to reduce loss of temperature. The honeycomb structure inside, holds the vessels upright and keeps the freshness of the cooked meal intact.  This is how every nutritious meal is served warm and fresh.  

The lunch at school is a bonus that motivates children to stay at school. The mid-day meal programme aims at enhancing enrolment, level of concentration and meets nutritional necessities of the children. So hunger, which is an obstacle to health, education and a bright future are tackled by mid-day meals with high nutritious value.

It is our responsibility as part of the society to support NGO with donation. It’s our responsibility to help the cause of fighting malnutrition, hunger and promoting education. It’s our responsibility to feed the hungry children.

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