Akshaya Patra: August 2015

Saturday, 29 August 2015

Akshaya Patra Kitchen adopting green initiatives

Green initiatives at Akshaya Patra kitchen is allowing the Foundation to responsibly move ahead with its mission of feeding mid-day meal to 5 million children by 2020. As Akshaya Patra looks at increasing its reach, it also looks at sustainability of the environment and hence the introductions of green technologies like the biogas units in its kitchens. The latest NGO news covers the adoption of a new organic waste to biogas system at Akshaya Patra kitchen in Ballari, Karnataka. This is the first of its kind one-ton capacity organic waste anaerobic gas lift reactor (AGR). Along with converting vegetables and food waste to energy of approximately 120-150 cubic metres of biogas, it also generates organic manure. This unit has been developed by the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and licensed to Hyderabad-based Ahuja Engineering Services.

The NGO news captures R. Madan, Chief Projects Officer of Akshaya Patra stating that in order to sustain such a large mid-day meal programme, similar green technologies will be adopted gradually in all Akshaya Patra kitchens with the support of the Tata Trust. This will enable the kitchens to replace LPG with bio fuel. He also said that two more 1.5-ton organic waste-to-biogas units have been ordered for the Foundation’s kitchens at Ahmedabad and Hubballi, along with installing an AGR in its upcoming Varanasi kitchen. Madan further added that eventually all Akshaya Patra kitchens will have biogas units as part of the Foundation’s Go Green initiative.

This NGO news also captured Shruti Ahuja, Director and Business Head at Ahuja Engineering Services saying that similar units or higher configuration units could be considered for the other Akshaya Patra kitchens across the country. Click @ latest NGO news to read more.

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Friday, 28 August 2015

Protect Children from Hunger on Raksha Bandhan

In Sanskrit, Raksha Bandhan means ‘knot of protection’. It is an age old festival that was started to symbolise the protection provided by a brother towards his sister. Gradually this festival evolved to become a celebration of harmony and love bringing people from across all religions, castes and varied ethnic groups. Beyond regular security, protection also means providing aid for a better tomorrow. Keeping this in view The Akshaya Patra Foundation provides an opportunity for all to participate in the celebration of Raksha Bandhan by providing food to millions of under-served children. It is a way through which people can provide nutritious meals thereby facilitating in countering classroom hunger and promoting education.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a NGO in India implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme since more than a decade. It provides freshly cooked nutritious meal to children across government schools. Currently, it serves over 1.4 million children covering 24 locations of 10 states. The Foundation operates centralised kitchen format and decentralised kitchen format to implement the Mid-Day Meal Programme. The centralised kitchen format of this Foundation has been cited as a model infrastructure for large scale production of mid-day meals in the guidelines of NP-NSPE. Akshaya Patra follows the Public-Private Partnership model of working and it has received appreciation widely. The years of consistent dedicated service has earned the Foundation a place in the National Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee for Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

For the benefit of children, Akshaya Patra takes various initiatives to spread awareness, call for volunteers and raise participation and funds. Alike previous campaigns, it is anticipated that this Raksha Bandhan initiative will also enhance the bond of love and affection towards children who deserve all the rights to food and education. It is possible to provide children with #BhojanSurakshaBandhan on this auspicious occasion. This bond will eventually prove to become a strong and potential knot between supporters and beneficiaries in stepping towards a healthy and educated future. This bond will also ensure a secure future for these children. Imagine the extent of aid that Akshaya Patra beneficiaries will receive if each person acts upon providing food security to millions of children as a part of the Raksha Bandhan celebration. The essence of the celebration itself will take a whole new tangible dimension with such an act of collective charity.

Your consideration of donating food to children as a gift on Raksha Bandhan will certainly be an act of compassion. Though these beneficiaries come from humble backgrounds and have their individual struggles yet they are filled with determination to change the future for the better. All they need is a little support from you. And as is said we all have the potential of providing little or more support at all times, thus, let your skill, time, knowledge or resource become a medium to provide support for the beneficiaries. Let’s take the festivity of Raksha Bandhan beyond our homes. Celebrate this Raksha Bandhan differently by participating in #BhojanSurakshaBandhan. Your contribution will gift the protection of food and education to millions of children in need.

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Thursday, 27 August 2015

Donate for Charity Towards Mid-day Meal in Bangalore

The Akshaya Patra Bangalore has been the implementer of the Mid-Day Meal Programme since 2000. With the vision ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’, the NGO has been steering the Mid-Day Meal Programme. The experience and expertise of more than a decade, has earned the Foundation a prominent place in the mid-day meal sector. Strategic planning pertaining to expansion and operations has allowed Akshaya Patra to provide mid-day meal in Bangalore including 23 other locations spread over 10 states of India. Providing good quality meal consistently, following mandatory hygiene standards, food safety measures and standardised kitchen processes are some of the considerations that has enabled Akshaya Patra to continuously serve wholesome mid-day meal to millions of children every day.

Akshaya Patra operates in a Public-Private Partnership model and thus it receives grants and subsidies from government and at the same time is permitted to accept donations from supporters. Akshaya Patra has corporate donors and individual donors who donate for charity towards the Mid-Day Meal Programme. Various Trusts and Foundations also donate or contribute grants towards the programme. It has been an association of more than a decade between Akshaya Patra and philanthropic donors, and this association has allowed the NGO to provide freshly cooked nutritious mid-day meal to children every day. This association has also enabled Akshaya Patra to improve its operations through innovative technologies and process enhancements. The Get Involved platform of Akshaya Patra allows people from all walk of life to provide support millions of beneficiaries not just through monetary contribution but also through their time and skill.

As a principle, Akshaya Patra Bangalore believes and follows the rule of being transparent and accountable to all its stakeholders comprising of children, parents, teachers, government, donors, volunteers and employees. To ensure that this principle is practiced the Foundation regularly publishes its Annual Report providing all the developments, achievements, and financial report of the previous financial year along with the plans for the next year. This report is made available to all stakeholders each year to get a review of the Foundation’s operations in providing mid-day meal in Bangalore and other locations. It gives a transparent account of all its income-expenditure statement reporting the programme cost and donations, grants and subsidies received during the past fiscal. This policy of Akshaya Patra also builds the confidence among the donors and supporters to get involved with the cause.

The organisation also gives an opportunity to supporters to meet the beneficiaries in the form of school visits. It also provides the aspirations of millions of deserving children in the form of hope stories from across all serving locations of the 10 states. Though these children come from humble background they are determined to rise up in life to make it a better future. Choose to be a part of this determination. Who knows may be you meet someone who shares your childhood aspiration! Donate for charity, it will allow millions of children to focus on rightful education through a plate full of nourishing.

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Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Food for Education Appreciated by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

The passing away of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam left the entire nation in deep grief. Fondly known as People’s President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited Akshaya Patra in June 2003. His visit was one of the most memorable one etched in the heart of the entire Akshaya Patra family. During the visit Dr. Kalam appreciated the food for education motto of the Foundation. He served mid-day meal to the beneficiaries and also enjoyed a meal with them. He expressed his happiness and congratulated Akshaya Patra for its excellent service.

A recipient of Bharat Ratna, Dr. Kalam was a selfless visionary, mentor and a real source of inspiration for millions of citizens. He was a great teacher who inspired students across the length and breadth of the nation. Dr. Kalam also highlighted the crucial role and potential of the Mid-Day Meal Programme in providing and improving the nutritional and educational scenario of India. It was his inspiration that Akshaya Patra launched its Vidya Akshaya Patra Programme that focussed on encouraging education in government schools thereby making its school meal truly a food for education programme.

As a tribute to the Former President, Madhu Pandit Dasa-Chairman of The Akshaya Patra Foundation says that Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was one of India’s greatest treasures and his legacy will continue to shine in the years to come. Click NGO blog about Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to read more about his visit to Akshaya Patra.

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Monday, 24 August 2015

Akshaya Patra providing mid-day meal as a Chhattisgarh NGO

As a non-profit organisation in India, The Akshaya Patra Foundation began serving mid-day meal way back in 2000 with Bengaluru being its first serving location. Its expansion as a Chhattisgarh NGO dates back to January 2009 with the setting up of a centralised kitchen unit at Bhilai. Equipped with latest cooking machinery, the kitchen here is highly mechanised preparing meals for over 23,000 on a daily basis. This NGO in India is known to maintain high standards of hygiene, cleanliness and safety during all the stages of preparing mid-day meals and thus their safety and quality measurements begin at the pre-production stage itself i.e. procurement, storage and cleaning of raw materials. It continues through the production stage when the actual cooking takes place. In order to ensure that the cooked food reaches the schools safely and on time, there are also post-production measures. These standard operational processes are a part of all the kitchens of Akshaya Patra. This has led to meeting of ISO 22000:2005 standards across 10 kitchens and Bhilai’s centralised unit is one among them.

As a Chhattisgarh NGO, Akshaya Patra currently feeds mid-day meal to 23,674 children in 160 Government schools each day. The Pan India reach of this Foundation is over 1.4 million children of 10, 845 government schools across 10 states. Considering the importance of spreading awareness this organization has taken the effort to make its website available in seven Indian languages and five foreign languages including English. This gives an opportunity for supporters to read about the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Hindi too. Akshaya Patra also gives various opportunities to its supporters to participate in the Mid-Day Meal Programme. Get Involved will apprise of different means to support the millions of beneficiaries.

Trustworthiness is a common concern that arises when we think of volunteering or donating for a charity. However, Akshaya Patra ensures that the trust is maintained among all its stakeholders and hence publishes its Annual Report regularly and makes it available for all. The level of transparency followed by this non-profit organisation in India has received national and international acclaims along with paving way to the ICAI Hall of Fame. It also attempts to bring the supporters and beneficiaries closer through school visits and hope stories from Chhattisgarh and nine other states.

As the year 2020 is fast approaching, so also the mission of the Foundation to feed 5 million children. Humongous task indeed, but it is possible with the support and involvement of people from all walks of life. Funds, skill or time, Akshaya Patra acknowledges, appreciates and encourages all forms of support. So get to know about the Foundation with the ease of reading in your comfortable language including reading about Mid-Day Meal Scheme in Hindi. Your participation has the potential to change the future of the nation. Be the catalyst of change and spread the word about your good deed. Your good deed can become the inspiration for others to become change-makers along the way.

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Friday, 21 August 2015

Me & You – A Campaign for Feeding the Hungry Children

At a mould-able age if a child is sensitised about the significance of feeding the hungry children, they sure will act upon it because a child is another child’s best friend. Children already are gifted with quality of compassion; all we need to do is foster it by giving them the opportunity to foster it. Children are always ready to offer help especially if it concerns another child. These qualities of children inspired The Akshaya Patra Foundation to initiate the Me & You campaign.

The Me & You campaign created awareness among young children of two international schools in Bengaluru. Through this campaign Akshaya Patra representatives encouraged the school children to contribute something towards their government school counterparts i.e. the Akshaya Patra beneficiaries. It communicated that when it comes to feeding the hungry children at government schools, a contribution as small as Rs. 63 can feed an Akshaya Patra beneficiary for one whole month. Volunteers for NGO from IIM Indore and Flame too participated in this campaign in its first phase to spread awareness and encourage students of Primus Public School to contribute towards the cause of feeding the hungry children. In the second phase volunteers for NGO from The International School Bangalore and Chitrakala Parishad campaigned at Prakriya Public School.

The students of both the participating schools willingly came forward to donate for charity by contributing their pocket money. The students of Standard V from Primus school alone collected Rs. 66,000 to donate for charity. The willingness and generosity seen among young children during the campaign explains that a child is always the well-wisher of another child.

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