10 Ways to Donate to Akshaya Patra

On a quiet Sunday noon, Amit was glancing through the latest news on his phone. A few articles later, he came across a rather distressing article about children in India. It said, ‘almost half of India’s children are chronically malnourished and hunger is the main cause for illness among children.’ This led Amit to make a resolution — to donate to schools to ensure students are served hot and nutritious meals on every school day. 

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a Bengaluru-based NGO, gives you the chance to sponsor mid-day meals of children for an entire academic year. As a choice, you can also sponsor kitchen equipment or donate a vehicle to help strengthen the operations. Because meals are prepared for over 1.5 million children across India every day, the organisation ensures that the kitchen operations are efficient and food is delivered to schools on time.

Here’s a quick guide to all of Akshaya Patra’s donation options!

Donate online

Your contribution of Rs 750 can help in feeding nutritious mid-day meals to a child for an entire academic year. You can donate online by choosing the number of children you would like to sponsor for a year.

Donate a vehicle

With the help of Akshaya Patra’s blue bus, beneficiary schools receive their mid-day meals on time. You can donate a vehicle to the organisation and have you name or company logo displayed on the vehicle.

Sponsor kitchen equipment

Every morning, Akshaya Patra’s kitchens cook more than 1 lakh meals. While we focus on feeding more children, you can help us increase productivity by sponsoring a kitchen equipment. 

Sponsor a school for a year

The organisation caters to over 10,948 government schools in India. You can now sponsor a government school’s mid-day meals for a year and help the students enjoy fresh and nutritious meals.

Donate in honour of someone

The organisation gives you the opportunity to make a thoughtful contribution—donating in honour of someone you admire. Through this, not only will you honour an individual, but also support the cause.

Donate in memory of someone

To cherish memories and to express love and respect, you can donate in memory of someone you love. Your donation to help sustain the mid-day meal programme will be valuable and appreciated for its thoughtfulness.

Donate for a special occasion

How do you wish to celebrate your birthday? Share your joy with Akshaya Patra beneficiaries by donating on your special day. Be it anniversary or birthday, you can make it more special by supporting a cause.

Donate through cheque/DD

You can write a Cheque or Demand Draft in the name of The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Since this is an offline donation, we can arrange a pick-up service or you send the cheque through post.

Make a donation via wire transfer

You can donate to Akshaya Patra through wire transfer. Once you submit your information on the website, one of Akshaya Patra’s representatives will get in touch with you to further the process.

Set ECS donation

You can transfer funds on a periodical basis by setting up an Electronic Clearance Service to make ECS donation. This is an easy and hassle-free mode of transferring funds.

For the organisation to continue operating on a large scale, you can make a contribution of your choice and help the Foundation achieve its mission of feeding 5 million children by 2020. With support from the Government and many philanthropists, The Foundation continues its school lunch operations across the country, running the world’s largest NGO-driven mid-day meal programme. 

How will you benefit? 

Donations to Akshaya Patra are eligible for 100% deduction under Section 35 AC / 80 GGA of the Indian Income Tax Act.  When you make a donation, you will be given a receipt and a 100% Tax Exemption Certificate along with a ‘thank you’ letter via courier or post. The certificate and receipt which will reach you within 10 days of making the donation and can be used to avail 100% tax exemption for the respective financial year.

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Say Good Bye to Classroom Hunger and Help Bring Our Children Back to School

Learning is fun, but only when the stomach is full. A hungry child cannot think about anything else other than food. This can affect the way a child concentrates in the class and his or her overall performance at the school.

The food issue has grown to such an extent that, these children are sometimes compelled to go for work to earn their daily bread. No wonder, India is yet to attain complete freedom from child labour, an issue which has always stood in the path of our nation’s development. However, there has been a remarkable change in this trend from the past few years.  Data from the Ministry of Labour & Employment shows that in 2011, only 43.53 lakh children aged between five and 14 opted work over their school compared to the 1.26 crore children in the year 2001.

A report released by the World Bank shows that more students were going back to school from the year 2000 onwards. It was the same year when The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a Mid-Day Meal NGO was established. Only 1.4 million students missed out school in 2011 compared to 32 million in 2001.

An initiative established with a mission to end classroom hunger has succeeded in bringing some of our vulnerable children back to the school.  The organisation has come a long way in attaining its mission and Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme today feeds over 1.4 million underserved Government school children in 10 states, compared to 1,500 children in 2000.

Akshaya Patra has received wide support and donations from different parts of the world and the organisation hopes to feed 5 million school children by 2020.

Children are considered to be a gift from the God. It is our responsibility to protect and support the gift. Support the cause today and return our children their right to education.

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The Akshaya Patra Foundation is completing its 15 years of service in the society. The NGO started in the year 2000 by feeding just 1500 children. In the 15th anniversary of the organization it reached 1.4 million children. On this occasion, Akshaya Patra is contesting some fun activities. Visit celebrating 15 year.

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Helping Children—A Responsibility

There is nothing nobler than helping the ones in need. And if they are children, it is a responsibility as well as an opportunity. Children’s basics need of food and education are the most essential ingredients that will allow them to grow up strong, smart and a better citizen. In India many children are in want of help from us.

Millions of children in India are malnourished and driven to child labour and other unsavoury occupations just for a square meal when they are supposed to go to schools and get educated. The connection of food and education is natural. Both factors correspond to each other directly. To bridge gap between hunger and education the Government of India and the State Governments have developed several initiatives and programme. Amongst the programmes is the Mid-Day Meal Programme. And The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of the many NGOs that are implementing the programme to feed children in schools.

Akshaya Patra runs the mid-day meal programme and feed children in schools every day in an effort to eliminate classroom hunger. Currently, it is providing nutritious mid-day meals to more than 1.4 million children from 24 locations in 10 stated across India. The mission of Akshaya Patra is to feed 5 million by 2020. Being an NGO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation needs support from people to keep up the programme and reach out to more children. And as it is agreed that helping children is not just a noble deed but, also our responsibility and an opportunity, expectation for support grows and we know these children will be disappointed as long as there are responsible citizens in the country.

Get Involve with the organization and help the children.

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Daan Utsav – The Joy of Giving

You must be aware of the rerun of an advertisement on Daan Utsav on television these days. Yes, this is Daan Utsav week or as previously known as ‘The Joy of Giving Week’ and it is because of which the advertisement is on prime time. There is no change in content as the theme; idea and philosophy remain the same.

It is also known as the ‘festival of philanthropy’ and is held from 2^nd October to 8 October of every year covering Gandhi Jayanti. The whole intent is to make is an actual festival which you celebrate every year with the acts of giving— be it money, time, resources and skills - spanning the corporate, NGO and government sectors, schools, colleges and the general public. It should be imbibed into the fabric of our modern culture and we all need to be a part of it by celebrating the festival. And how you celebrate is by ‘Giving’.

Many people have joined hands every year in trying to make the joy of giving week successful. And year after year, it is getting bigger. It’s easy to participate, you can organise an event, collect contribution and donate it to an organisation or just make a contribution to help a foundation run its programme. There multiple other ways to do things your way and eventually make a difference.

This year, you can take part by supporting Akshaya Patra run its Mid-day meal programme. It’s a programme that caters to over 1.4 million children in India. Imagine the joy you will experience when you know millions of children are smiling back at you with gratitude when you helped them by supporting Akshaya Patra. So, kick start your celebration of Daan Utsav by extending a helping hand to Akshaya Patra today!

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Mid-day meal programme assures freedom from hunger

As a nation, we are independent of any rule from external nations and have our own democracy. But, should independence only mean freedom from external rulers? This question is sure to open up a plethora of answers depending on the varied perceptions we all have about freedom. However, from the perspective of freedom from hunger in a population of approximately 1.28 billion people, the hunger population starkly stands at 194 million, one of the highest in the world. This hunger situation is also an indication to the alarming poverty-illiteracy scenario in the country.

Being a participant nation in United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, India is working towards achieving Millennium Development Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, and Millennium Development Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education. There indeed has been progress towards achieving the mentioned goals but as a nation we are yet to get 100 per cent freedom from hunger, poverty and illiteracy. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and Mid-Day Meal Scheme are among the potential and promising developmental programmes initiated by the Government of India to counter illiteracy and hunger among children. The primary purpose of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan is to ensure that children from all sections of the society are being recipients of the fundamental right to primary education. The Mid-Day Meal Programme on the other hand acts like a supporting pillar to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan as the primary objective of this initiative is to counter classroom hunger by providing free cooked meals to children at all government schools.

A review of the mentioned initiatives reveals its efficiency and potential in eradicating the poverty-hunger-illiteracy cycle. The Government runs these programmes in association with various NGOs with the aim that the benefits of the programmes should reach the population at the grass root level. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one such NGO that has taken up Mid-Day Meal Programme as its primary cause. By implementing this programme in a Public-Private Partnership model, Akshaya Patra is feeding hungry children with nutritious meals across 10 states in India. This meal encourages children to attend school and also boosts their aspirations. When you donate for the cause you are actually contributing towards children hunger fund that is utilised to continue feeding hungry children with wholesome meals each day. A click at Stories of Hope will introduce you to many young lives with aspirations and dreams like any regular children; the only difference being their current socio-economic status. But your participation in the programme as a donor, volunteer, well-wisher can prove to be a catalyst for change.

This Independence Day choose to donate to a good cause and give the freedom to learn, eat and play to those who are our future leaders. 

Happy Independence Day to all!!!

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An all-rounder with a bright future

Sonalisha Shukla is a bright, vibrant energetic young girl of eleven years. Studying in standard VII of the Rakama UPME School in Nayagarh, Odisha, she works hard in school. Telling us that her favourite subjects to study are Maths, Science and English, Sonalisha is quite an all-rounder in her interests.

As a beneficiary of the Akshaya Patra Mid-Day Meal Programme, Sonalisha quite enjoys eating the rice and dal (lentils), though she is not too fond of the kheer (sweet dish). In her free time she enjoys watching television, especially ‘Chotta Bheem’. Her ambition is to become a doctor so that she can treat people who are unable to pay for the aid.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation runs a decentralised kitchen in Nayagarh. This is due to the lack of road connectivity and difficulty with infrastructure in the region. This decentralised kitchen is run by a women self-help group under the guidance of Akshaya Patra personnel. Aside from providing the tasty, hygienic mid-day meal to the students in the area and giving them access to education, the kitchen also acts as a means to provide employment to women in the area. By employing local women to undertake certain tasks these kitchens help them with economic independence.

Sonalisha is growing up to be a captivating, positive young lady, and with the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal giving her the sustenance she needs, we are sure to see her succeed in the future.

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Keeping up with Gujarat’s Growth Spurt

How much do you know about Akshaya Patra’s presence in Gujarat?
This state which has seen phenomenal economic growth in the last decade has also seen a great deal of improvement in the arena of classroom hunger, partly due to the work of The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

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Born to be free!!

In a crowded country like India with over 1.2 billion people coexisting, life can get a little cramped and stifling to say the least. One problem with a burgeoning population like India’s is that we start running out of place – out of place to live, walk, drive and most importantly, play.

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