Peace and Development through Mid-Day Meals

Science has been a way of life. Using logic, it can explain an issue and provide tactical solutions. Science has led to innumerable discoveries in every field and continues to throw light on causes and consequences.

In the last few decades, we have all come to a conclusion that science helps us in understanding the past, the present and the future. For without science, development would have been difficult. This year, as we observe World Science Day for Peace and Development 2016 – established by United Nations to demonstrate the relevance of science, let us try to understand how science can be applied in building a better future for our children, especially from an NGO’s perspective.

World Science Day is celebrated annually on November 10 and it witnesses global participation from non-profit-organisations, governments, institutions, corporates and individuals. Celebrating this day helps us gain insights into the developments in the field of science. For Akshaya Patra, an NGO for children which supplies nutritious mid-day meals to schools, science has been a boon – innovation and technology have been the driving force to reach millions of children on every school day.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation began its mid-day meal operations with a vision – ‘No child should be deprived of education because of hunger.’ When this food for education initiative took off in the year 2000, the organisation provided mid-day meals to 1,500 children. But with the help of donors, government and advanced technology implemented in our kitchens, the reach has now increased to over 1.6 million children. This number proves the need of the programme.

The history of mid-day meal in India goes back to pre-independence era when Madras Corporation introduced free lunch programme in the year 1925 in Puducherry. In 1962, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu made it a mandate that all primary school children in the state must benefit from Mid-Day Meal Scheme. In 2001, the Supreme Court of India passed an order stating, "We direct the State Governments/Union Territories to implement the Mid-Day Meal Scheme by providing every child in every Government and Government assisted Primary School with a prepared mid-day meal."

The Mid-Day Meal Programme aims to address three important issues:

i. End classroom hunger

ii. Increase school enrolment

iii. Address malnutrition

Meals with a Motto

Through the years of many challenges and achievements, science has played an important role in transforming children’s lives through food for education. All of Akshaya Patra’s centralised kitchens are equipped with sustainable food processing machines and 304 grade stainless steel vessels which are finest for cooking and handling food. Even the delivery vans are optimized to maintain food temperature and they all follow GPRS to ensure on-time delivery of meals. Akshaya Patra, with support from the government, is able to reach over 1.6 million children in 11 states across India.

With 16 years of experience as a children’s NGO, we can doubtlessly say that ‘Science is a process in search of a better tomorrow.’ Through science and its developments, we will be able to build peace in the minds of children.

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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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