Why Annual Reports are important for NGO?

Credibility, trustworthiness, and transparency are some of the terms commonly heard while discussing about any organisation, be it a for-profit organisation or a not-for profit organisation. And, as an organisation grows and expands its business or service, these three factors become even more significant. Brands and businesses from across all sectors strives to maintain their credibility and trustworthiness by being transparent to its stakeholders in one way or the other, and publishing Annual Report is one of the many ways.

Annual Reports are comprehensive publications covering highlights, developments and audited financial statements of an organisation. Remaining specific to not-for-profit organisations, Annual Reports are a mandatory document that the organisation has to publish and make available to all its stakeholders. NGO Annual Reports instil a sense of confidence among all its stakeholders regarding the organisation’s operations, growth, and fund utilisation. Heeding to this, many NGOs like The Akshaya Patra Foundation diligently publishes this report annually.

Akshaya Patra is a mid-day meal NGO and is also considered as a top NGO in India. It has been implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme since 2000 and currently provides nutritious meals to more than 1.7 million government school children on each school day. The Foundation is headquartered in Bengaluru and has operational units across 36 locations of 12 states in India. The Foundation was selected to partner as a mid-day meal NGO after it fulfilled all the criteria stated in the NP-NSPE 2004 guidelines. One of the criteria in the guideline is “the chosen NGO will furnish to the body assigning the work to it an Annual Report along with an audited statement of accounts in terms of all grants received from the State Government, both in cash and kind, duly certified by an approved Chartered Accountant”, and the NGO is adhering to it since the beginning.

For NGOs, transparency is a key factor in building trust and reliability. Hence, Akshaya Patra ensures that it maintains transparency regarding all its activities as a mid-day meal NGO. The Foundation publishes its Annual Reports at the end of each financial year. It reports all the developments, achievements, and audited financial statements of the completed financial year, along with plans for the upcoming year. This report has received appreciation and recognition in national and global platforms amidst NGO Annual Report category as well as general categories for accuracy in reporting and creative representation of the report.

A non-profit organisation can be considered to be performing NGO role in India in totality only when it makes available details about its operations and services to its stakeholders and complies to standard financial procedures to release its financial statements. In this regard, Akshaya Patra has been keeping up with the prerequisites of a reliable NGO. This top NGO in India complies with the Indian Accounting Standards issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The Foundation also complies with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) after adopting this format of reporting in 2008-09. Akshaya Patra has been recognised and appreciated with the:

• ICAI Gold Shield Award for “Excellence in Financial Reporting” for five consecutive years since 2008-09 inducting Akshaya Patra into Hall of Fame. In addition, to the consecutive wins, the Foundation has also has bagged the award for the latter years
• South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) Best Presented Accounts Award for four consecutive years: 2008-09 (Certificate of Merit), 2009-10 (2nd runner-up), 2010-11(Gold Award), 2011-12 (Silver Award) and 2012-13 (Gold Award)
• Australasian Reporting Award 2017
• 24th Annual Communicator Award for Excellence 2018

These accolades for the NGO Annual Reports have increased the credibility of the organisation and has instilled a sense confidence and trustworthiness among all its stakeholders. In conclusion, Annual Reports form a very significant document for an NGO. These reports are a proof that while working towards their respective causes NGOs are accountable and responsible for optimum utilisation of the contributions - monetary and non-monetary, made by their stakeholders.

Importance of childhood nutrition

‘Nutrition’ has been a never-ending topic of discussion among mothers, paediatricians, and dieticians, and of lately, has seeped into the conversations of the health-conscious generation too. It may appear overrated or it may sound cliched, but the fact is nutrition indeed is a vital aspect of a healthy life and deserves conscious and considerable attention; especially during the growth years of children.

Importance of nutrition during formative years

Childhood is the most eventful of all developmental stages - be it physical, cognitive, social, emotional, or language and communication – children are the most active learners during this phase. However, children must be provided with adequate nourishment for them to achieve various developmental milestones age-appropriately. A balanced nutritious diet comprising of the right amount of essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, vitamins and minerals become vital for proper growth and development of children. Heeding to this NGOs like The Akshaya Patra Foundation have taken up food and nutrition as their core cause. Akshaya Patra is an NGO that implements the Mid-Day Meal Scheme and has been providing nutritious meals to children of government schools and government-aided schools since 2000.

Benefits of good nutrition

There are several advantages of good nutrition for children. Here is a handful of them:

• Proper nutrition supports age-appropriate growth and development in children;
• It improves the immunity level in children thereby keeping infections and diseases at bay;
• It enhances cognitive functioning, level of activeness, social connections and interest to learn and explore different activities;
• Better-nourished children are more active at school and perform well in their academics and other school activities.
• Under-nourishment leads to low immunity, a decrease in activity levels, social interactions, urge to learn, and cognitive functioning, and poor academic performance. It also has an adverse effect on the child’s physical and emotional development.

Role of mid-day meal in nourishing children

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a government initiative to provide healthy and nutritious meals to children of government schools and government-aided schools. The children of these schools hail from not-so-privileged socio-economic backgrounds and for them, the mid-day meal becomes the only source of nutrition, and many times it is the only proper meal they get for the entire day. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme is aimed to counter classroom hunger, address malnutrition, increase school enrolment, increase school attendance, and improve socialisation among children belonging to different castes. Favourably, several studies report a positive impact of the mid-day meal on all the mentioned aspects. So, that the mid-day meal and its nutritious value benefit more children, Akshaya Patra is strategically and sustainably expanded its reach across the country.

Gift a nourished childhood

A well-nourished child grows up to be a healthy and confident adult, something that is important not only at a personal level but also at a societal level. Imagine there are 100 children in your neighbourhood and 80 of them are under-nourished. Do you think they will be interested in anything else apart from getting some food? Do you think they will grow up to be resourceful? Unfortunately, not. Hence, it is the responsibility of the ‘haves’ to take care of the ‘have-nots’ so that the latter is empowered enough to become self-dependent and resourceful. By supporting Akshaya Patra you can ensure healthy and wholesome food for millions of children. Choose to offer a donation for children because every child deserves the right to nutritious food and the right to attend school.

NGO in Gujarat & Its Kitchen

In 1984, Gujarat became the second state after Tamil Nadu to implement the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Over the years, it has been observed that this scheme has had significant improvement in the nutritional and educational status among children. According to 2011 Census, the literacy rate in Gujarat had risen to 79.31% as compared to 69.14% in 2001, with a male literacy rate of 87.23% and female literacy of 70.73%. As a supporting arm to government’s effort in improving educational scenario, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in Ahmedabad began its mid-day meal service in the state in 2009.

Akshaya Patra is an Indian mid-day meal NGO headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It has been in the service of providing mid-day meal since 2000. The Foundation began its journey of providing nutritious meals to the children of Gujarat by establishing its first kitchen in Vadodara in 2009. Currently, this NGO is feeding a total of 4,07,452 children in 1,621 government schools across the state.

Akshaya Patra Kitchens in Gujarat

Akshaya Patra is providing mid-day meal in Gujarat from its five centralised kitchens located in Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, Surat, and Kalol. Of these, three kitchens namely Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat are ISO 22000:2005 certified kitchens and the Bhavnagar and Kalol kitchens are in the process of certification. Each of the kitchens strictly adheres to hygiene and cleanliness practices while preparing meals. To enhance productivity and efficiency of operational processes, Kaizen, Continuous Improvement Projects and Six Sigma methodologies have been adopted in these kitchens.

All the kitchens are highly mechanised cooking units equipped with roti-making machines, cauldrons, trolleys, rice chutes, grinding machines, potato peeler machines, vegetable cutting machines, atta kneaders, RO plants, and rice-cleaning machines. Each of the kitchens has dedicated customised delivery vehicles to transport cooked meals to all beneficiary schools.

Menu of Gujarat kitchens

So that each child enjoys their school lunch, the meal menu of Gujarat kitchens consists of various native items to suit the local taste. Some of the menu items are: Peas pulao, kabuli chana pulav, vegetable pulav, groundnut jeera pulav, soya chunks pulao, lauki khichdi, jeera rice, plain rice, soya dal, chana dal, dal fry, mixed dal, roti, thepla with til and mix vegetables, thepla with potato, thepla with louki, mix vegetable curry, mixed vegetable with desi chana, and dal dhokli.

Eco-friendly measures in kitchens

Alike all kitchens of Akshaya Patra, this NGO in Ahmedabad also implements various eco-friendly measures in its kitchen operations to save cost and reduce carbon footprint while maintaining the efficiency of production. Some of the initiatives taken in the kitchens of Gujarat are:

• PNG( Piped Natural Gas) for cooking
• Plantation and agriculture in small scale
• Bio-gas Plant
• Effluent Treatment Plant(ETP)
• LED lighting in the kitchens

Socio-developmental initiatives

While focussing on their core activity of providing mid-day meal in Gujarat, the kitchens have also taken several socio-developmental initiatives for the betterment of the beneficiaries and the society. Some of the initiatives are:

• Providing meals at Anganwadi centres, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Government Hospitals, and Pawagar Mandir
• Cookies distribution
• Shoe Distribution
• Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan
• Health camps and check-ups
• School activities like fairs and exhibition, school visits to kitchen, guest visits to beneficiary schools, and symbolic feeding

As a mid-day meal NGO, Akshaya Patra wants to benefit more children with its wholesome meals. While it is receiving aid from government and donors, it needs your support too. You can instantly be a part of the NGO’s endeavour by contributing online donations for NGO. You can also make a difference by opting to adopt a school or donate a vehicle for delivering meals to schools. Your contribution will not only provide school lunch, but it will also give an opportunity to children to attend school and benefit from the much-needed education and other school activities that will support their overall development as responsible citizens. So, step up and support the mid-day meal programme of Akshaya Patra.

NGO in Uttar Pradesh & Its Kitchen

Reportedly, over the next 10 years, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will be home to 31% of the youngest Indian population between five and 14 years. Specifically, Uttar Pradesh already tops the list of child population in the country with 200 million aged between five and 14 years. This indicates that soon this 200 million will be a part of the country’s workforce, making the health and education of this young population a matter of utmost importance, not just for the progress of the state but for the nation as a whole. Unfortunately, the current education scenario in Uttar Pradesh is not a very pleasant sight with its low literacy rate of just 67.7%. In addition, the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) Flash Statistics 2015-16 reports that Uttar Pradesh has the worst student-teacher ratio in India and it also has the poorest transition rate from primary to upper primary school. The state also ranks poorly in learning outcome even though it has a higher per-student spending compared to the rest of the country. The Government has taken several steps to improve this prevailing critical situation, and Mid-Day Meal Scheme is one of the important interventions. The efforts of the government to provide mid-day meals have been furthered by The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a mid-day meal NGO in Lucknow and Vrindavan.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a mid-day meal NGO in India. Established in 2000 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, the NGO currently feeds more than 1.7 million children of 14,173 government schools in 36 locations of 12 states in India. It began its journey of providing mid-day meal in UP in 2004 by establishing a centralised kitchen in Lucknow. In total, Akshaya Patra is currently reaching out to 2,11,680 children in 3,021 schools in the state.

As a NGO in Lucknow, Akshaya Patra provides mid-day meals to 91,418 children in 1,011 government schools and in Vrindavan the NGO provides school lunch to 1,20,262 children in 2,010 government schools.

The Foundation has established hi-tech centralised kitchens in both the locations. These kitchens are equipped to prepare 1 lakh meals per day and they serve locally palatable meals like roti (Indian flatbread) with sabzi (vegetable curry) along with other native food items for the main reason that maximum children should eat their school lunch readily and joyfully and reap the benefits of nutritious meals.

Since roti is a staple item in the North Indian menu, the Lucknow and Vrindavan kitchens are equipped with roti making machines. These machines have the capacity to roll out up to 200,000 rotis from 6000 kilograms of wheat flour. Aside from roti making machines, these kitchens are equipped with rice cauldrons of at least 500 litres capacity, dal cauldrons with the capacity to cook 1200 litres to 3000 litres, trolleys, rice chutes, cutting boards, knives and other similar equipment. The cooked meals are packed in insulated vessels and are transported to schools in insulated vehicles. The delivery vehicles are enabled with GPRS tracking system for safety and on-time delivery of meals.

Alike all kitchens, the Lucknow and Vrindavan kitchens strictly adhere to hygiene and cleanliness practices while preparing meals and both are ISO 22000:2005 certified kitchens. Since Kaizen, Continuous Improvement Projects and Six Sigma methodologies form an integral part of Akshaya Patra kitchens, the same is practiced in Lucknow and Vrindavan kitchens too. As an NGO providing mid-day meal in UP, Akshaya Patra has observed significant improvements in various fronts. According to a third party study conducted by Sigma Research and Consulting Pvt. Ltd. in 2014, Uttar Pradesh showed a positive trend in the following variables: elimination of classroom hunger, social equity, nutrition and health, enrolment, and retention and attendance. It scored a total of 9.43 on a scale of 10, thus revealing that mid-day meal has had a significant impact on children.

This NGO in Lucknow wants to expand its reach and benefit more children in the state. But, in doing so, it requires support from you. You can be a part of the NGO’s endeavour to nourish children by either contributing funds or by opting to donate a vehicle to deliver meals to schools. Your contribution will ensure that children receive at least one nutritious meal per day. It will also make you a part of the change that will get manifested in the form of healthy and educated generation. Step forward, contribute, and be a part of nourished and educated India.

An NGO's effort to make health is wealth for children

‘Health is wealth’ is a familiar phrase and it becomes even more important with respect to children. The first five years of a child is considered to be the most crucial growth phase as a significant amount of development and learning happens during these formative years. And, an important aspect that promotes healthy growth is consumption of nutritious diet. Nutrition improves cognitive functioning, appropriate physical development, maintains energy levels, and provides enhanced immunity against infections and diseases. And, there is enough evidence to establish the relationship between nutrition, health, and learning.

So that every child receives the best of nutrition, many NGOs have taken it up as their core cause to provide wholesome meals to children mainly targeting the lower socio-economic strata of the society. One such NGO for children in India is The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Established in June 2000, this NGO implements the Mid-Day Meal Programme in government schools across the country with the vision ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’. For the past 17 years, the Foundation has been tirelessly working towards providing freshly cooked, nutritious school lunch to school children so that children continue schooling and at the same time benefit from the programme health-wise. Before talking further about this NGO and its work towards promoting health and education, here is a list of reasons that explains the significance of investing in nutrition, health, and education of children:

Thus, it is evident that nutrition, health, and education become critically important during the growth years of children.

Well, heeding to the above-mentioned aspects of nutrition and health, Akshaya Patra, the NGO for children strives to provide ‘unlimited food for education’. In order to maximise the benefit of the Mid-Day Meal Programme, Akshaya Patra operates to formats of kitchen facility – centralised kitchen to provide school lunch in urban and semi-urban areas, and decentralised kitchens to provide school lunch in remote areas. To ensure meals are nutritious, the NGO employs various quality measures in its operations – right from procurement of raw materials to delivering the cooked meals. Raw materials are procured based on Supplier Quality Management System and are inspected as per Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). All the kitchens follow the FIFO (First In First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out) methods while issuing the raw material for production. Washed and sterilised vessels and tools are used for cutting, cooking and transporting food. All employees are trained in good hygiene practices and food safety measures. It is mandatory for each member in the kitchen to follow the hygiene chart comprising of daily shower, use of clean uniforms, head caps, face masks to cover the mouth and nose area, hand gloves, gumboots, other protective gears and hand sanitisation. Cooked food is transported in insulated vehicles to retain the freshness and quality of meals. Continual Improvement Projects, Six Sigma methodologies, 5S, GMP, Lean and Kaizen are some of the process improvement methods implemented across all kitchens.

This charitable trust understands the value of each penny and hence on an average, 92% of the total donation is used towards meeting the programme cost and 8% towards the programme management cost. Such effective management of funds and operations has led the Foundation to grow steadily over the years. From feeding just 1,500 children in five government schools of Bengaluru in 2000, Akshaya Patra has expanded its reach to more than 1.7 million children across 12 states of India. It has impacted young lives with wholesome meals on every school day. So, even though Akshaya Patra is a mid-day meal NGO, it wouldn’t be wrong to say donate for education in India because its service of 17 years has been instrumental in bringing children to school and empowering them with education.

In a nutshell, to create a healthy society, we must focus on the health of children. And, to create a prosperous society, we must focus on the education of children. Only healthy children can contribute to the socio-economic growth of themselves and the society.