Every day, Akshaya Patra provides school lunch to more than 1.6 million children across 34 locations in 12 states of India.
Witnessing the interest of Aditya’s interest in computer and solar energy, Akshaya Patra partnered with ITI to provide a computer lab to the school so that children can receive practical knowledge along with theory lessons.
Heeding to Manjula’s interest in theatre and acting, Akshaya Patra enrolled her for a month long mentorship programme at the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama, following which she shone bright at a stage performance.
Akshaya Patra has partaken in several disaster relief activities by providing food to affected people in crisis situations like the devastating Nepal Earthquake and Chennai floods in 2015, the Gorakhpur flood in 2017, and the like.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that was initiated with the vision, ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’ Since its genesis in 2000, this NGO has been striving to address the critical issue of classroom hunger and accessibility to school education through its Mid-Day Meal Programme. Initially, the Foundation served school lunch to just 1,500 children in five government schools in Bengaluru. Taking note of the crucial requirement of school meals, Akshaya Patra gradually began expanding its operations to other parts of the country as well. The Public-Private Partnership, good management, innovative technology, and transparent accounting policies have made the Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme the world’s largest NGO-run school lunch programme. Today, Akshaya Patra operates 34 kitchens (32 centralised; 2 decentralised) across 12 states, feeding over 1.6 million children, every day.
The role of NGOs in the mid-day meal sector is to provide freshly cooked, nutritious meals to school children with the objective to:
• avoid classroom hunger
• increase school enrolment
• increase school attendance
• improve socialisation among castes
• address malnutrition, and
• empower women through employment
And, several studies done to assess the impact of Akshaya Patra’s meals suggest that the Foundation has been making steady progress in achieving the above-mentioned objectives.
Over the 17 years of service, Akshaya Patra realised that for an overall development of children and inclusive progress of the society, it has to fill certain gaps within its operational realm such as availability of nutritious meals in Anganwadi, providing a platform for children to hone their talents that will help in achieving their goals, and also being available for fellow citizens at the time of need such as natural disasters. So, while performing its core activity of providing mid-day meal, Akshaya Patra also impacts the society with its other feeding initiatives.
Witnessing the potential among its beneficiaries, this NGO in India endeavoured to go beyond just providing school meals with its 'Give Every Dream A Chance’ initiative. As a start, Akshaya Patra identified three beneficiaries Shivu, Manjula, and Shekar with the aim to become an astronaut, an actress, and a chef, respectively, and provided them with a month’s mentorship under experts in the mentioned fields. The impact of this initiative was:
Such initiatives are indeed of prime importance for the overall development of children, and Akshaya Patra is taking steps to implement it within its realm of service.
The dedicated service of the Foundation has been recognised in various forums and here is a mention of just a few of the laurels:
Witnessing the interest of Aditya’s interest in computer and solar energy, Akshaya Patra partnered with ITI to provide a computer lab to the school so that children can receive practical knowledge along with theory lessons.
Heeding to Manjula’s interest in theatre and acting, Akshaya Patra enrolled her for a month long mentorship programme at the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama, following which she shone bright at a stage performance.
Akshaya Patra has partaken in several disaster relief activities by providing food to affected people in crisis situations like the devastating Nepal Earthquake and Chennai floods in 2015, the Gorakhpur flood in 2017, and the like.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that was initiated with the vision, ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’ Since its genesis in 2000, this NGO has been striving to address the critical issue of classroom hunger and accessibility to school education through its Mid-Day Meal Programme. Initially, the Foundation served school lunch to just 1,500 children in five government schools in Bengaluru. Taking note of the crucial requirement of school meals, Akshaya Patra gradually began expanding its operations to other parts of the country as well. The Public-Private Partnership, good management, innovative technology, and transparent accounting policies have made the Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme the world’s largest NGO-run school lunch programme. Today, Akshaya Patra operates 34 kitchens (32 centralised; 2 decentralised) across 12 states, feeding over 1.6 million children, every day.
The role of NGOs in the mid-day meal sector is to provide freshly cooked, nutritious meals to school children with the objective to:
• avoid classroom hunger
• increase school enrolment
• increase school attendance
• improve socialisation among castes
• address malnutrition, and
• empower women through employment
And, several studies done to assess the impact of Akshaya Patra’s meals suggest that the Foundation has been making steady progress in achieving the above-mentioned objectives.
Over the 17 years of service, Akshaya Patra realised that for an overall development of children and inclusive progress of the society, it has to fill certain gaps within its operational realm such as availability of nutritious meals in Anganwadi, providing a platform for children to hone their talents that will help in achieving their goals, and also being available for fellow citizens at the time of need such as natural disasters. So, while performing its core activity of providing mid-day meal, Akshaya Patra also impacts the society with its other feeding initiatives.
Witnessing the potential among its beneficiaries, this NGO in India endeavoured to go beyond just providing school meals with its 'Give Every Dream A Chance’ initiative. As a start, Akshaya Patra identified three beneficiaries Shivu, Manjula, and Shekar with the aim to become an astronaut, an actress, and a chef, respectively, and provided them with a month’s mentorship under experts in the mentioned fields. The impact of this initiative was:
Such initiatives are indeed of prime importance for the overall development of children, and Akshaya Patra is taking steps to implement it within its realm of service.
The dedicated service of the Foundation has been recognised in various forums and here is a mention of just a few of the laurels:
- Akshaya Patra has been ranked 23rd among the top 100 NGOs featured in the 2013 edition of The Global Journal.
- This top NGO has also been featured as one of the eight Indian game changers in the inaugural edition of Innowin (India’s first magazine dedicated to innovation).
- Akshaya Patra became the first NGO to comply with the IFRS and also the winner of the Gold Shield for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the ICAI for five consecutive years, inducting the NGO in the ICAI Hall of Fame.
- In 2006, Akshaya Patra was considered as a case study at the prestigious Harvard Business School as part of its MBA curriculum.
In an effort to multiply the impact of the Mid-Day Meal Programme, this NGO in India continuously enhances its technologies and processes by implementing Kaizen, Continuous Improvement Projects and Six Sigma methodologies in its kitchen operations. Alongside regular technological interventions, the Foundation has also adopted green initiatives such as biogas plant, briquette boiler, and solar power in some of its kitchens with the aim to reduce carbon footprint and operational costs. Also, in an endeavour to improve the nutritional intake of the beneficiaries, recently it launched a pilot in partnership with the Government of Karnataka to include millets in the school lunch programme.
Undoubtedly, the role of NGOs is significant and important for the overall development and progress of the society. And, organisations such as Akshaya Patra bring about a change in a sustainable manner, right from the grass root level, so that each child grows up to be an asset for the country. Join in the efforts of NGOs and be a part of nation-building.
No comments:
Post a Comment