Thursday, 31 October 2013
Significance of social media for non-profit organisations
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Determination of beneficiary children in Karnataka has no boundaries
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Akshaya Patra Kitchens setting high standard in efficiency, hygiene and delivery
Akshaya Patra centralised kitchen have set the bar high for efficiency, hygiene and delivery standards.
Akshaya Patra kitchens are nothing but actual food factories. It is in these kitchens that hope is nurtured every day. Hope, that today a child will not go hungry, or that he will not have to resort to labour to earn money for a single day’s meal.
Collectively, Akshaya Patra kitchens feed 1.3 million schoolchildren in 10,050 government schools every day. Akshaya Patra’s centralised and de-centralised kitchens are located in 19 locations across nine states. 11 of Akshaya Patra’s centralised kitchens are ISO-22000 certified and the organization runs 17 centralised and 380 decentralised kitchens in all.
The state-the-art-centralised kitchens are equipped with chopping machines, boilers, cauldrons, chimneys, conveyor belts, steel ducts through which the food passes and so on. There is a board room and a food laboratory in each centralised kitchen as well.
Each Akshaya Patra centralised kitchen has the ability to cook between 50,000 to 1,50,000 meals. Meals are cooked in automated, steam-heated cauldrons that are custom-built to optimise time. Technological innovation has been adopted by Akshaya Patra to constantly increase preparation speed, efficiency and leave less room for errors. Roti-making machines in Akshaya Patra kitchen have been designed and modified to increase the output; this mammoth machine can now churn out 60,000 chapattis in an hour.
Hygiene and quality standards are the primary priorities of the cooking process. Protective gear is mandatory for all employees. The kitchens operate in a gravity-flow mechanism to prepare meals. Chopping and cleaning is carried out on the second floor, cooking on the first and packaging on the ground floor. This mechanized process is used to reduce human handling of food to reduce the risk of contamination.
The cooked food is packaged in containers and transported to schools in custom-built vehicles that are insulated to keep the food fresh till it reaches the children at lunch time.
To suit the palate of children in different parts of the country, the menu is set accordingly. The North Indian menu consists of roti and sabji, while the South Indian menu consists of rice, sambar and curd. Nutritious vegetables are always used to prepare the meals, still ensuring that the meals are tasty and enjoyed by the children.
Akshaya Patra centralised kitchen have set the bar high for efficiency, hygiene and delivery standards. It is a core feature of Akshaya Patra’s mid day meal programme to maintain its extensive operations without compromising on its high quality standards.
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https://plus.google.com/103409264342204954520/posts A collective mission of an NGO like Akshaya Patra in India
Around 8.1 million underprivileged children in India are out of school and resort to child labour in order to earn enough for a single day's meal.
One particular mission of ngo in India suggests the surest way to eradicate poverty is through education. Education can significantly improve the quality of life of a child. It will grant him independence to stand on his own feet. When the basic needs of a child, such as food are not met, education often becomes the last priority.
Helping underprivileged children by providing them with a healthy, balanced meal that they would otherwise have to work for is a noble cause. The challenge lies in securing the long-term benefit of education for the children, and not offering them just temporary help.
The meal is an incentive for them to continue their education. It helps reduce the dropout rate to a great extent and increases classroom attendance.
We are in a state of urgency and crisis and the priority of the fortunate should be helping underprivileged children attain an education and secure a bright future for them. Education is essential to eliminate child labour and poverty.
Ensuring that children go to school, where they will also receive nutritious meals, is the best way to hold them back from turning to labour as a means to earn enough for a day's meal.
Non profit organizations, working for the mid day meal programme, believe that the delight and potential of one mid day meal goes far beyond just filling a hungry stomach. It equals an opportunity for education, ambition and a future.
For children to be successfully educated, they need to be fed. An energized child will be able to concentrate on academics. Nutrition and care is essential for every child's development. Making education and nutrition accessible for every child has been a mission of Akshaya Patra since its inception in 2000.
This needs to be the mission of all NGOs and those who want to change the situation of hunger, illiteracy and poverty in India. With collective effort, working towards a common goal, we can considerably change the state of our country for the future generations.
The mid day meal programme aims to secure an education for every child in India by ensuring that hunger does not compel them to turn towards labour to earn enough for a day's meal.
The potential of a mid day meal is underrated sometimes. A mid day meal is more than just an incentive for children to attend school; it's a promise of a future. A child who has turned to labor only dreams of getting his next meal. Hunger acts as an obstacle, holding them back from realizing their dreams.
https://plus.google.com/103409264342204954520/posts Friday, 11 October 2013
Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in India Observe World Food Day 2013
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was founded on October 16, 1945 and to honour this day World Food Day is observed every year around the world.
Every year a theme is set to celebrate the day, and the World Food Day theme for 2013 is "Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition."
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Akshaya Patra Foundation is celebrating Joy Of Giving Week for Children
This year, during the on-going 'Joy of Giving' week, every responsible citizen should make an effort to give someone a part of what they have- be it time, clothes, food, money or any other kind of support. There are many reasons that let us experience joy in a lifetime. Everybody loves an occassional gift, especially when it is least expected. However, there is a deeper joy in giving, more than receiving. It's when you give that you feel responsible and happy above all.
The joy of giving involves everything including giving someone a small bit of your time or donations for children or helping a blind man cross the street and so on. It is human to constantly expect and not be satisfied with what we have. We earn a living by constant hard work and a drive for success. But we always want more, be it professional or financial success. When that's how it is in the life of people who make sufficient money, it is hard to imagine the plight of those who struggle to even make two ends meet. There is no dearth of such people in our country, especially children. This year, during the on-going 'Joy of Giving' week, every responsible citizen should make an effort to give someone a part of what they have, be it time, clothes, food, money or any other kind of support. There are many charities across our country that function only to feed the children and for the joy of children.
These charities often spread awareness about the condition that these children live in and encourage volunteering from youngsters and adults who are earning enough.
Arjun, a college student studying B.E. visits an orphanage in his city almost every weekend. According to him, there is no joy in the world as good as the joy of giving. "I am 19 years old. I understand that I have been fortunate to be born to parents who have provided me with nutrition and good education to help me stand up on my own feet. But lots of children, much younger than me, are not so fortunate as to receive even basic nutrition. Hence, as a responsible adult I visit an orphanage on the outskirts of Bangalore and spend some time with those children. That's the least I could do but it lets me experience the joy of contribution towards the society. I feel today's youth should recognise the importance of donations for children and support them to carve a future for themselves in this society."
Many people have actually left their corporate jobs and joined Not-for-profit organisations in order to work for a cause. Shashikant Inamdar, a resident of Hubli is one such individual who resigned from the position of engineer at a leading hardware manufacturing company, and joined an NGO only because he wanted to "do his bit for the progress of our society". "I was at an executive position in a corporate firm. But I was not happy with my job since it was not giving me joy or satisfaction. Then I approached an NGO which is part of the government mid day meal scheme. I have been working for this NGO for the past nine years. Now I experience both, the joy of giving my time towards the betterment of society and mainly the joy of feeding children! It gives me immense pleasure to see the happiness in the eyes of these children when they eat their meal at school," he says.
This Joy of Giving Week, make a difference by giving some time and support to those in need. Experience the Joy of Online Donations.
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Like TheAkshayapatraFoundation Follow @AkshayaPatra https://plus.google.com/103409264342204954520/posts Friday, 4 October 2013
Joy of Giving Week Being Celebrated By Akshaya Patra Foundation To Feed The Children
The great poet, Kahlil Gibran once said, "I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy." Although this statement was made in the two centuries ago, it holds good even in today's situation. The added advantage is that people in this century need not visit a certain place to donate. They can experience the Joy of giving online! It takes just a click of the mouse to donate for children. Making donations for children is the ultimate way to experience the true joy of giving. Moreover, it takes a very small sum of monetary support to make a child's life.
In order to donate for children in India, one has to understand the grave importance of Donations for Children. According to reliable sources, 400 million children live in India, which is the highest recorded child population in the world. Of these, more than 200 million are malnourished. About 50 per cent of the children in the age group of 6 to 18, an approximate total of 8.1 million children in India don't attend school since they are subjected to child labour since they come from families below poverty line.
They go to sleep on an empty stomach every night. These are the children who need our constant support to give them the liberty to dream and to make sure they never give up on those dreams. Just one donation from each of this country's citizens who are earning enough for a living, will help each of these children go to school, where they deserve to be.
They go to sleep on an empty stomach every night. These are the children who need our constant support to give them the liberty to dream and to make sure they never give up on those dreams. Just one donation from each of this country's citizens who are earning enough for a living, will help each of these children go to school, where they deserve to be.
There are a large number of charities that dedicatedly work for the Joy of Children. But these charities also depend on contributions made by responsible citizens who are leading a comfortable life. Be it monetary or in kind, it's when you give that you experience the true Joy of Giving. The main purpose of a donation for children is to strengthen their base at a young age so as to motivate them to build a future for themselves in this society. After all, the country's future depends on their future.
Hence, the need of the hour is to create awareness about the importance of Donations for Children as much as possible and increase the number of individual and corporate donors to make sure that these children get good education and nutrition.
Step forward, donate for children and experience the Joy of Giving.