Fight Classroom Hunger, but the right way

Fighting malnutrition, especially among children, is now a challenge that transcends all classes of society and regions. But, a significant proportion of school-going children in India now need not worry as they are now able to escape the scourge of hunger and malnutrition, thanks to the efforts of The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

The food supplied from the 34 kitchens of Akshaya Patra across the country is not merely cooked to fill the stomachs, but it is a wholesome balanced meal that supplies all the necessary nutrition. The food that the children get in their mid-day meals are fortified with the required nutrients necessary for both physical and mental development of children. The food is fortified with nutrients like vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamin D, folic acid, iodine and iron. Food fortification is done to decrease the occurrence of nutrient deficiencies. It is extremely important for children in their growing years to get these nutrients in their food.

You could play a role in this endeavour by donating for education in India and ensuring that children from across the country benefit, both in terms of their dietary needs as well as their educational needs.

Philosophies driving the kitchens

With its primary aim to supply high quality and safe food from its 34 kitchens, Akshaya Patra has introduced various metrics in every area of its operations and service delivery. It has partnered with different organisations to review the quality of its mid-day meals prepared and served to more than 1.6 million children every day. To maintain the quality of the meal, it has standardised the recipes.

Say Kaizen and 5S, the Japanese business philosophies, and the ones that come into your mind would be corporate majors like Toyota. But, it's part and parcel of Akshaya Patra's kitchen operations. To improve the quality standards, Japanese management technique of Kaizen and 5S, the method of workplace organisation that uses five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. They describe ways to organise a workspace for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used. With the Foundation focused on Employee Health and Safety too, it holds activities to increase the hygiene standards and improve safety and health.

A top NGO like Akshaya Patra which has the wherewithal to ensure the food is balanced, can be trusted in ensuring that the children get the right kind of meals. A meal that is not well-balanced would result in children growing up malnourished. A food without the micro-nutrients would affect the mental development of children too and its impact would be visible in adulthood.

Keeping Children healthy

With the government having so many things to focus on, NGOs have a role in ensuring that the ills caused by unhealthy foods are taught to children and their parents to ensure they get the right kind of food.

The Foundation, over the last 17 years, has been continuously trying to reach as many children as possible. Today it feeds over 1.6 million children across 12 states in the country.

Know the Importance of Food and Nutrition

Have it ever come into your mind why we give so much importance to food and nutrition?

The answer is simple: food gives the energy to work plus grow. Also without food nobody can survive. Nutrition is equally important as food. Our body requires micronutrients like vitamins, minerals in small quantities and macronutrients like carbohydrates, protein and fat in large quantities. These nutrients help the body in different ways and a deficiency of any of them can affect proper functioning of the body and can even lead to death.

That is why doctors always recommend a healthy, balanced diet for both adults and children.

When we talk about the importance of nutrition and balanced diet, another question pops up-what is a healthy food? Any food item which can help stay healthy including fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, dairy products, nuts, seafood, meat and egg is considered as healthy.  On the other hand, a balanced diet involves consuming only the right amount of food required for a healthy body weight and taking different types of foods in the right proportion. A balanced diet, thus will be high in fruits and vegetables; starch (potatoes, rice, bread, pasta); protein (meat, fish, lentils), dairy products (milk) and will be low in salt, sugar and fat.

Balanced diet has been known to protect against many chronic diseases like stroke, heart disease and diabetes in adults. Similarly, food and nutrition has a critical role in a child’s life. A balanced diet helps brain development, improves concentration, boosts self-confidence, keeps bones strong, fights obesity, improves immunity and keeps diseases away.

However, unfortunately, everyone in the world does not have the opportunity to eat healthy. About 870 million people around the globe fight hunger every day and are at higher risk of malnutrition, stunting, wasting and death.

Deficiencies of vitamin A, iron and zinc have found their places among the top ten leading causes of death in developing countries.  It is concerning to know that nearly two billion people are affected with micronutrient deficiency, mainly deficiency of vitamins and minerals.

Iron deficiency is known to cause brain damage in children and pose heart risk in adults. Similarly, a deficiency in vitamin A in children can lead to blindness and increase the risk of dying from measles, malaria or diarrhoea. An iodine deficiency during pregnancy can lead to poor mental health in babies, stillbirth, abortion, and mental retardation in adults.  Also a zinc deficiency in children can affect proper growth, immunity and cause death.

All these years, some international organisations like UN, WFP, UNICEF have been trying to end this problem.  In India, we, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, have been fighting hunger and malnutrition since 2000 by delivering nutritious mid-day meals to government school children. Our mid-day meals contain all the nutrients required for children’s healthy growth.

Over 1.4 million children have benefitted out of our Mid-Day Meal Programme. However, millions of children still require our help. So create awareness about the importance of nutrition with us and help us provide food and nutrition to more children across India.


To know about the Significance of Good Nutrition for Education, visit: Nutrition for Education

Healthy Food for Children is Crucial for Development

All the major developments of the body and brain take place at childhood.  Therefore, lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains are essential in the food for children to ensure their healthy development. However, the reality is that not all the children in India have access to proper nutrition, especially in their formative years, in fact millions still don’t. The silver lining is that the situation has become far better than what it was used to be, largely thanks to the efforts of various NGOs for children and people who donate to charity.

Healthy food for children is important for several reasons:

• Early childhood - from birth to eight years is one of the most critical periods in children’s growth. It is during this period children grow fast and acquire all their basic skills including language, socio-emotional development (attachment, sense of right and wrong); and fine (ability to hold pencils) and gross (balance, skip) motor skills. Vital nutrients in fruits and vegetables like vitamin C, vitamin A, fibre, folate, potassium, magnesium and phytochemicals help keep the body and mind healthy. This is why doctors and health experts specify on including more fruits and vegetables in food for children.
• Countless studies in the past have also highlighted importance of healthy eating during childhood.  A balanced diet has been shown to increase brain function, improve behaviour and concentration of students and improve children’s learning capacity and academic performance.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), healthy nutrition also protects children against obesity and chronic diseases like cancer, eating disorders and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, following a healthy diet during the early stages of growth also helps one remain healthy in adulthood and at old age. 

On the other hand, chronic malnutrition has been proved to leave irreversible damage on children, both in their physical and mental development. UNICEF states that about 7.6 million children around the world die before age five. Around 200 million children manage to survive; but fail to reach full human potential due to various reasons like poor nutrition, inadequate care and lack of opportunities.  According to the experts, early intervention by giving opportunities to overcome these issues can yield promising results and help improve survival, growth, health and other areas of early development.

In India, effort to provide opportunities to underserved children was initiated through many NGO for children like The Akshaya Patra Foundation. With the help of individuals who donate to charity, Akshaya Patra has been providing nutritious food for children since 2000.

Giving children the opportunity to attend school regularly, the organisation currently delivers freshly cooked nutritious meals to over 1.4 million children every day. The NGO for children aims at providing more food for children by expanding its reach to 5 million students by 2020.

To help make this happen, join Akshaya Patra and donate to charity. Your support will ensure more children get wholesome meals every day in government and government aided schools, and get the opportunity to grow physically and mentally strong.