Celebrate this New Year with Akshaya Patra

 New Year will be here soon!

We all are in a bind about how to celebrate it. What shall our goals be for the coming year? How can we make it better? 

You may be aiming for a new job, upskilling yourself for a new role or striving to get good grades. You may also be seeking to build new or strengthen existing relationships. 

But how about adding a new goal that satisfies your sense of purpose in life – to be a better human being by helping the underprivileged? 

And here’s the best part – you can do it right from where you are with a few clicks online! 

If you like the idea, then join us. Let us have it as our collective resolution for 2023.

Join the Akshaya Patra family this New Year

We at The Akshaya Patra Foundation have been providing unlimited food for education of underprivileged children for 22 years. We ensure that our meals meet the palatal preferences of children as well as align with the nutrition guidelines from the Indian Government.

Our 65 kitchens across 14 states and 2 union territories cater to underprivileged communities and disaster victims during emergencies. 61 of these kitchens are automated centralised facilities that cook between 3,000 to 0.2 million meals per cooking cycle, utilising gravity flow mechanisms to minimise human touch for enhanced safety and quality.

Our journey

In 2000, our Foundation started serving meals to 1,500 children in five Government Schools in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Today, our passion for ZERO CLASSROOM HUNGER goal has allowed us to feed 2 million Government school children across India every day.

In 2015, we airlifted 1,00,000 meals to earthquake-hit Nepal in April. We also established an Earthquake Relief Centralised Kitchen in June 2015 to support the affected people of the region. It was an initiative undertaken in collaboration with Jamsetji Tata Trust and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha. This kitchen served 1.4 million meals to the affected people for 88 days. 

 

We conducted similar relief programmes in the subsequent years during floods and cyclones in Chennai, Gujarat, Gorakhpur, North Karnataka, Kerala and Odisha. Through these activities, we benefitted more than 2 million beneficiaries across India.

 

Our work was appreciated in 2017 when we received a National Award for Child Welfare, Gujarat Flood Relief and Gorakhpur Flood Relief. In 2019, we won the Gandhi Peace Prize, BBC World Service Global Food Champion Award, Outlook Poshan Jury Award and Mahatma Award for Social Good. 

 

During our two-year-long COVID relief programme, we distributed over a million meals and kits to the affected people. In 2021, we were honoured with the Mahatma Award 2021 in the ‘COVID-19 Humanitarian Effort’ category. In 2022, we received the Prestigious Mahatma Award for Social Good and Impact ‘Zero Hunger’.

 

Other flagship programmes

 

As our work supporting the Indian Government’s Midday Meal Programme (now called the PM Poshan Abhiyaan) began to be recognised by people and the various Governments globally, we started more initiatives to help the marginalised. Below are some of them:

Anganwadi Feeding Programme

Anganwadi Feeding is an initiative by the Government of India to nourish pregnant women and nursing mothers for the healthy growth of their infants. The initial months after a child is born are crucial for the development of their vital organs. Hence, this programme was started to provide care to new mothers and their babies. We help in its execution across India and have served 1,61,53,556 meals so far.

Feed the Homeless Mothers Programme

Most widowed women in Indian society are abandoned by their families with necessities that last them only for a few days. To save these resources for the future, they skip food frequently. We started feeding the homeless mothers to give them a life of dignity and respect. Your support will give them nourishing meals twice a day so that they can concentrate on making a living rather than pondering over how to survive without food.

Breakfast Feeding Programme

A review of a study by experts showed that at least 199 of 5,158 children get only one meal a day. Midday meal (MDM) is the first meal for around 2.1 lakh children — not breakfast. Thus, we launched the Breakfast Feeding Programme starting with the Government Schools of Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka.

Digital Education Programme

The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the digital divide, where the underprivileged were forced to discontinue learning due to lack of digital devices. Our digital education initiative in Government schools aims to enhance the quality of education while generating excellent learning outcomes and building a pleasurable schooling experience. It focusses on inclusiveness while contributing to the Central Government’s vision for ‘Digital India’.

Millets in mid-day meals for Government School Children

To enhance the quality of nutrition in school meals and support sustainable food growing practices, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nutrihub, the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) to introduce millets in the mid-day meal menu for children. It was piloted in schools in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and will slowly be executed in other locations as well.

Donate Online this New Year

Choose any of our programmes to empower the underprivileged this New Year. Make your celebrations more memorable by donating towards their welfare and start the year on a positive note. 

With one contribution online, you will transform lives for the entire year of 2023! 
Donate for ayear filled with goodness!

5 New Year Resolutions with The Akshaya Patra Foundation

 

This new year, extend the joy of giving, by lighting up smiles and giving wings to the dreams of millions of children.

Celebrate with us : https://www.akshayapatra.org/happy-new-year 

Be a Santa and Gift Health, Nutrition And Education, This Christmas

Christmas is celebrated all around the world as a time of pleasure, celebration, home-made holiday treats, and more. Christmas is, above all else, a season of giving.

Several corporations go above and beyond to share joy, especially among the underprivileged by being their Santa, in the true spirit of spreading joy that is the core of Christmas celebrations. For most of us, Santa Claus might appear as a jovial old man with snow-white beard wearing a red suit, pulling a sleigh, but for the majority of India’s underprivileged women and children, Santa might appear as Akshaya Patra’s blue food van that brings hot and delicious midday meals (MDM) to school every day, the food that’s served in Anganwadis or among homeless mothers.

Gifting Smiles and Dreams

“My favourite dish is bisibele bath but I enjoy every food item that Akshaya Patra serves. I want to be an IAS officer. I know it needs lots of preparation but I have a strong determination and it's my dream and one day it will definitely come true. Even my parents feel proud when I say I want to become an IAS officer. My teachers and classmates believe that I am very determined about my career and this will definitely make me successful one day,” he says.

Caring for the Old and Homeless

About two years ago, Promila Burman travelled to Vrindavan and dedicated her life to Radha Krishna. She lives in an ashram near the temple, where she spends much of her time meditating and interacting with other widows and the homeless, like many other widows do.

This Christmas, celebrate and support Akshaya Patra by spreading joy and happiness among children like Vijay and elders like Promila, by ensuring that they have access to hot and nutritious meals every day.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that provides midday meals to school children. Currently, the NGO serves wholesome and nutritious meals to over 2 million children every school day across 65 locations in 14 States and 2 Union Territories of India.

In addition to this, the NGO provides meals to homeless mothers in Vrindavan, promotes the education of numerous children, and helps anganwadis in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The Foundation also runs a number of other capsule programmes that are beneficial to society.

When you make a donation to Akshaya Patra, you become a glimmer of hope for millions of underserved who have dreams for a brighter tomorrow and long for a better chance to life. Your contribution will ensure that they get an access to a balanced diet for their holistic development and growth.

Give them the gift of "unlimited food for education" this Christmas to make it special. Donate for children and mothers to help them enjoy this Christmas! Spread Christmas cheer and be their Santa Claus they most need! Their development and education will continue with just a small financial contribution.

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Akshaya Patra is a recognised 22-year-old NGO in India
empowering 2 million children daily with unlimited food & education.

Know more: https://www.akshayapatra.org/

Akshaya Patra: NGO that bringing food and happiness to underprivileged children

 One in three undernourished children in the world lives in India.   

And millions of children in our country go to school hungry or do not attend school at all. 

Reason?

• ·         Lack of enough resources at home that pushes them to work or get married
• ·         Undernourishment that results in 

o   lack of energy 

o   inability to concentrate on scholastic and non-scholastic activities

o   reduced cognitive development

Malnourishment is not necessarily an outcome of a lack of food. Even those who eat three meals a day can be malnourished if they do not receive essential macro and micronutrients. Thus, children need well-researched programmes like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme or MDM (now known as the PM Poshan Abhiyaan).

Under the PM Poshan Abhiyaan, every school meal must contain essential nutrients in adequate quantities mandated by the Ministry of Education and the Government of India.

Malnourishment and Akshaya Patra

Our country is a fast-growing economy that relies on innovation and skilled human resource for development. But if our talented children do not receive food and education, they will not grow into competent individuals, thus slowing down the pace of growth of our country.  

So, for a bright future with better opportunities for all our upcoming generations, we must strike malnourishment now!

And so, we did!

We, The Akshaya Patra Foundation are an NGO feeding school meals under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme or MDM (now known as the PM Poshan Abhiyaan) for 22 years. Nourishment for the education of underprivileged children has always been our prime focus. 

We have come from feeding 1,500 children in five Government schools in Karnataka to 20,10,516 (2 million) children daily across 14 states and 2 union territories, with strong support from various Governments, consistent efforts and donations from our compassionate donors. We aim that no child in India should be deprived of education because of hunger and our mission is to nourish 3 million children daily by 2025.

Over the years, our NGO’s presence across the country has grown strong. Our mid-day meals (MDM) in schools are being loved at all our 65 locations as they are hygienic, locally palatable and adhere to the nutrition guidelines stated by the Ministry of Education. 

In 2022, we also received the prestigious Mahatma Award for Social Good and Impact "Zero Hunger" and it would not have been possible without our donor family.

This year, our NGO also started serving breakfast along with mid-day meals and will be introducing millets to the menu in all our beneficiary schools very soon.

Now, it is your chance to give back to India by feeding its precious children. Here’s how your donations to our NGO make an impact.

He is a Class 12 student in the Science stream and his favourite subject is Chemistry. “Chemistry is my favourite subject because I get to use magic to create things every day. One day, I will make something that can help change the world, and that's why I want to become an engineer,” he says. 

Vijayakumar likes to watch cricket in his free time. He also learns typing, which he believes will help him in the long run and enhance his focus. He expresses gratitude for the mid-day meals (MDM) served at school and mentions pulav as his favourite dish.

Kavya enjoys dancing, singing and writing in her free time and English is her favourite subject. She also likes Science and General Knowledge. Her favourite mid-day meal (MDM) dishes are dal, rice and sukhadi.

Support Akshaya Patra, the NGO for children

These young talents await your support to grow into skilled and responsible citizens of India and leaders of tomorrow. Join our donor family and experience the unending bliss of contributing to our country's future.

Donate online to support Akshaya Patra today!

Better nutrition, better lives of children, better health

 

Empowering Children With Food And Education

 Every expanding economy must consider nutrition.

According to UNICEF, acute undernutrition in India causes wasting in 20% of children under the age of five. India is home to more than one third of the world's wasted children. 43 percent of Indian children under the age of five are underweight, and 48 percent, or 61 million children, are stunted as a result of persistent malnutrition.

In our nation, nutrition and education have traditionally gone hand in hand. Lack of education frequently results in ignorance of the value of nutrition and lack of understanding of balanced meals. Children who live below the poverty line, where eating full meals is a luxury, frequently choose not to pursue their education in order to obtain employment that will allow them to buy food.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation runs the Mid-Day Meal Scheme or MDM under the Government’s PM Poshan Abhiyaan, which allows students to get free and nutritious lunch at school, in an effort to attract more children to enrol in school and support them to continue their education.

Giving Wings To Dreams Of Children

Majority of children, who attend the school that Geetha (name changed) is the head teacher of in the Unkal district of Karnataka, only attend for the meals served as a part of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. She adds that the meals served in school also acts as one of the most significant incentives for parents to enrol their wards to schools thus helping them to continue their education and follow their dreams and aspirations. This also helps parents ensure that their child gets an access to at least one wholesome meal every day.

Akshaya Patra is cognizant of the immediate and enduring effects of midday meals. As a result, this NGO feeds and nourishes over 2 million Government school children across the country every day, thus encouraging them to dream of a better and brighter tomorrow.

To support the nutrition and education of children in need, donate online! 

Celebrate Children’s Day with Akshaya Patra

 

Transforming India through Digital Education

Every year on November 11, National Education Day is observed to honour Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India's first Minister of Education. He was a brilliant leader and thinker who made enormous contributions in the field of education.

We honour his achievements on this day and reaffirm our dedication to offering high-quality education to every child apart from feeding them. We also honour the numerous accomplishments of our students and teachers as well as the advancements made in India's educational system. The significance of education as a human right and a driver of social change is also recognised on this day.

Apart from feeding children through the PM Poshan Abhiyaan (previously known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme), Akshaya Patra has been a pioneer in promoting education among the underprivileged sections of the community. From creating opportunities for children to pursue quality education, the Foundation has continuously strived to eliminate classroom hunger and to provide the latest educational tools and techniques to children who have restricted access to opportunities.

Keeping up with the theme of National Education Day and in the quest to provide holistic development to children and support them to pursue their dreams, Akshaya Patra started its Digital Education Programme under the organisation’s Beyond The Meals initiative.

The initiative will provide students with access to digital devices and world-class digital learning platform with professionally curated content and equip teachers with tech-enabled teaching tools, to make teaching an interesting experience. It will also help aspiring medical and engineering students in their preparation for competitive exams such as NEET and JEE.

Let’s have a look at how the Digital Education Programme has impacted the lives of a few beneficiaries of The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

To contribute towards a child’s happier and brighter tomorrow, donate online!

Akshaya Patra turns 22

 

Celebrating 22 years of feeding the hungry

 It's a huge accomplishment that 22 years have passed since The Akshaya Patra Foundation was established in March 2001. Reflection is especially beneficial around significant anniversaries like our 22nd. Here is a look at our accomplishments till date and our future goals.

In 2001, following the Supreme Court’s mandate to provide free midday meals to all Government school children, Akshaya Patra, an NGO working towards the education and nutrition of children, extended its operations from serving hot meals to 1,500 children to 2 million children under the Midday Meal Scheme (now known as PM Poshan Abhiyan), with the help of India’s Central and State Governments.

The NGO now provides hot and nutritious school lunch in over 20,000 Government and Government-aided schools across the country to combat classroom hunger. Akshaya Patra runs on a Public-Private Partnership model that includes assistance from Local, State and Federal Governments as well as charitable donations.

A Pandemic Crusader

With the onset of the pandemic and the announcement of the nationwide loockdown to curb the spread of the virus, the nutritional needs of most of the midday meal (MDM) beneficiaries were affected to a great extent. But The Foundation quickly switched from MDM to providing food and other forms of relief to people across the country. Daily wage employees, labourers at building sites, workers in industrial areas, migratory labourers and rough sleepers received meals and food relief packs with basic goods.

An Employee Speaks

Stories of Hope and Success

A doctor of tomorrow

Fulfilling aspirations, achieving dreams

Footnote: We thank all our donors and well-wishers for their inconsistent support over the last 22 years, towards our cause.

Support Akshaya Patra. Feed the hungry!

Let’s bust some myths about Malnutrition

 

Akshaya Patra steers closer to its vision; hits a new milestone

 

Akshaya Patra now delivers 2 MILLION smiles DAILY!

The esteemed 21-year-old NGO in India achieved its new feeding landmark in September, nourishing 2 million children daily! It includes children receiving food under the Midday Meal Scheme (MDM) and the Anganwadi Feeding Programme that nourishes nursing mothers along with their infants.

In the past, Akshaya Patra has been instrumental in bringing policy reforms around the Midday Meal Scheme (MDM) (now the PM Poshan Abhiyaan) and improving the nutritional value for its beneficiaries. Studies suggest that regular mid-day meal consumption reduced the chances of children being underweight and obese. It enhanced their chances of being in the average weight and overweight category along with being from short to normal in height. They also became healthier and less susceptible to anaemia, fever, diarrhoea and cough.

But with the pandemic making matters worse for underprivileged families in India, there was an immediate need to uplift them socioeconomically and bring their children back to school. Therefore, the organisation launched new initiatives in the year 2022 to reach, nourish and support more marginalised people across the country.

 Akshaya Patra’s reach with new initiatives

 

1)      Inauguration of 4 new kitchens

Akshaya Patra inaugurated four new kitchens in the first few months of 2022:

·         62^nd kitchen in Varanasi, Gujarat: feeds over 100,000 children in 282 schools

·         63^rd kitchen in Dehradun, Uttarakhand: feeds over 11,900 children in 132 schools

·         64^th kitchen in Mansa, Gujarat: feeds over 26,000 children in 190 schools

·         65^th kitchen in Jorhat, Assam: feeds over 10,070 children in 156 schools

Contributions from generous donors like The Hans Foundation and the IndusInd Bank made these kitchen constructions possible. Many delegates, including Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India and Shri Amit Shah, the Home Minister of India, attended the inaugurations and pledged their support for the NGO’s endeavours.

 

2)      Breakfast Feeding Programme

A review of studies around providing free school breakfast proved that it ensures adequate nutrition and energy in children to attend daily classes with improved concentration and interest. They come to school regularly, cultivate good behaviour and show improved academic performance. It also reduces expenditure in lower-income households, giving them the incentive to send their children to schools. Also, students who skip breakfast show increased errors and have slower memory recall. 

Therefore, a well-designed, hygienic and nutritious diet would help children—and the Indian population in the long run—to recover from widespread undernourishment. Keeping this in mind, Akshaya Patra started serving breakfast in addition to mid-day meals in Government schools.

 

3)      Millets in mid-day meals of Government school children

To improve nutrition for children as part of the PM Poshan Abhiyaan, Akshaya Patra signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nutrihub, the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in August. It aims to introduce millets in the meals for Government school children in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and eventually, across the country.

Millets are proven to have five times higher nutritional content when compared with rice and wheat. They will digest well, strengthen the nervous system, reduce cholesterol, prevent heart disease, protect against diabetes, lower cancer risks, increase energy levels and nourish the muscular system in millions of underprivileged children in India, thus boosting their physical and mental health.

These small-grained cereal crops are also rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre, medicinal properties, iron, zinc, calcium, niacin, B6, folic acid, potassium, phosphorous and magnesium, which are essential to curb the problem of malnutrition in India.

Furthermore, millets are native to India. They can be grown in low fertile soils with low inputs of fertilisers and pesticides, adding to the nation’s sustainable food-growing practices.

4)      Sustainable food production methods

The programmes run by Akshaya Patra directly impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7, which are also the priority of the Indian Government.

Its kitchens are known worldwide for following advanced manufacturing practices and international standards of hygiene and quality, thus ensuring that the most nutritious meals reach the beneficiaries.

Now, with the new state-of-the-art kitchens, the NGO in India proves its constant efforts to integrate sustainability into its food production processes. They use solar panels for electricity generation with a heat pump and solar water heater to boil water.

Towards a sustainable future of India 

The new model of the PM Poshan Abhiyaan will also allow the children to grow their own food and kitchens will source raw materials locally, thus making the mid-day meal ecosystem more self-reliant, organic and sustainable. With regular checks on each child’s nutrition levels by experts, children will recover from learning and nutrient loss more quickly. But all this is possible only with consistent support from donors! 

When ₹2500 can support a child with breakfast, lunch and education for an academic year, why can each one of us not donate the minimum we can?

So, let’s end the wait and endless discussion on problems. Let’s bring health, education and opportunities to millions of underprivileged children with a few clicks online!

Our online donations can shape India’s future. Let’s contribute.

4 ways your donation to Akshaya Patra can help underprivileged children