The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that works on a
public-private partnership (PPP) model. It is an implementing partner of the Mid-Day Meal
Scheme with steadfast support from The Government of India, the State
Governments and philanthropic corporate and individual donors. Under this
programme, it provides unlimited food for education to children in Government
schools and Government-aided schools. This scheme is a remarkable intervention
to bring children back to school every day.
What started off as a vision that ‘No child
in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’ has grown
tremendously to be recognised as the world’s largest NGO-run
school meal programme; from feeding 1,500 children to feeding 18,00,907
children every day.
Since its inception, Akshaya Patra has steadily
and sustainably expanded in different locations across India. Here is a glimpse
of its reach across the nation today.
Today, it operates from 52 kitchens, out of
which 50 kitchens are centralised and 2 are decentralised. Both types of
kitchens give utmost importance to maintain cleanliness and hygiene. Of the
total kitchens, 20 kitchens are ISO 22000:2005 certified and the remaining are
in the process of certification.
How
the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is implemented by Akshaya Patra
To ensure maximum children are benefitted
from the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Akshaya Patra operates two types of kitchens:
Centralised
Kitchens
These kitchens are mainly located in urban
and semi-urban areas and act as a node to many schools surrounding it. These
are large cooking facilities having the capacity to cook 50,000 to 1,50,000
meals daily with the use of automated machines which also ensure less manual
intervention to maintain hygiene.
Decentralised
Kitchens
These kitchens are located in remote areas
where there is less connectivity. The difficult terrains of such locations hinder
setting up of a large kitchen facility. In such areas, women Self-Help Groups
(SHG) take up the cooking process. They are trained and are under constant
vigilance of Akshaya Patra’s Process and Quality Officers to ensure adherence
to hygiene and cleanliness while preparing the meals.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Samples of raw materials like rice grains,
pulses, spices, vegetables are assessed for quality based on standard food
safety and quality guidelines by Quality Managers in Akshaya Patra and are
purchased in bulk for preparation of meals.
Fresh vegetables are bought on a daily
basis. These are sorted based on best quality which are then washed and
sanitised. All the kitchens follow the FIFO (First In First Out) and FEFO (First
Expiry First Out) method in order to ensure fresh vegetables and raw materials
are used for cooking. This method helps in proper identification, storage and
retrieval of raw materials.
PRODUCTION
The process of cooking begins early in the
morning. Vegetables are chopped by the Vegetable cutting machine, root
vegetables are peeled using the potato peeler machine, pastes of coconuts and
batters for dosa, idly are made using a wet grinder.
If
you want to sponsor equipment used at Akshaya Patra’s kitchens, click here.
Cauldrons, steamers, rice chutes, trolleys,
knives, cutting boards etc., are all sterilised and cleaned to begin the
process of cooking. All the vessels utilised in the kitchen are made up stainless
steel of 304 grade. Each rice cauldron has a capacity of cooking 500 litres,
each dal cauldron has a capacity of cooking 1,200 to 3,000 litres of dal or
sambar. For the roti and puri making process, the dough kneader and roti-making
machine helps to maintain consistency and hygiene without any manual
intervention.
To ensure uniformity of taste,
pre-determined measurements for each recipe are used. A supervisor constantly
keeps an eye throughout the process to make sure that health and hygiene are constantly
kept on mind.
There are a few checkpoints that are
followed in the kitchen:
·
All the staffs are trained on
personal hygiene and food safety.
·
Food is cooked only in
stainless steel of grade 304.
·
Critical cooking points and
temperatures are monitored closely.
The cooked items are then transferred into
insulated containers through rice and sambar chutes which are then lined up on
conveyor belts to be transported.
POST
PRODUCTION
Packing
& Transportation
The cooked food is then transferred to
steam sterilised vessels which are made up of stainless steel 304 grade. The
vehicles in which these food containers are loaded into, are sterilised before
the loading process. These vehicles have a puffed up body which helps in
reduction of loss of temperature. The delivery vans are made up of a honeycomb
structure that can hold all the vessels and utensils in place without any
spillage till it reaches the children.
Delivery
and post delivery process
Many methods like Logistic charting for
route optimisation and GPRS tracking are adopted to ensure on-time delivery of
mid-day meals.
Feedbacks are taken from all the schools on
a daily basis while delivering the meals. The Quality Officers review these feedbacks
and work on corrective measures to improve the quality and delivery of food.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is on a
constant endeavour to improve its operations and quality of service towards
children’s mid-day meal service. Healthy meals give children hope; hope that
their dreams can be achieved.
Every child has a right to nutritious food
and good education.Donate online and enable them to succeed
in their life.
DONATE
SCHOOL MEALS TO CHILDREN WITH THE AKSHAYA PATRA FOUNDATION
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