Water is an essential part of children’s nutrition

Most nutritionists recommend that children must get three meals in a day along with two parts of healthy snacks. As far as the lunch is concerned, Akshaya Patra ensures that school children get a proper diet through its Mid-Day Meal Programme. The organisation has fed over 1.6 million school children so far. 

Clean drinking water is an integral part of the Akshaya Patra school lunch menu that this top NGO serves to the children. Children are often never concerned about how much water they need for proper hydration. But water is an essential part of their daily nutrition. Water helps keeping their body temperature stable and it is responsible for carrying nutrients and oxygen to cells, protects tissues and organs, soothes joints and removes waste. 

Apart from meal time, children would typically drink water after playing outside and thirsting for it. It doesn’t usually strike them that they need more water. Children aged between nine and 13 need 1.6 litres/6 glasses (boys) and 1.4 litres/5 glasses (girls) of water every day. In the 14-18 age-groups, boys need to drink at least 1.9 litres/7 glasses and girls need to drink at least 1.6 litres/6 glasses per day. Apart from water, children can also be fed low-fat milk that nourishes them without giving them sugar or additives that are found in soft drinks or flavoured mineral water. Akshaya Patra encourages children to drink sufficient water after their meals. You can also play a part in this charity fundraising. 

Of course, children must be taught to consume more water during hot days or if they are indulged in a lot of outdoor activities or sports. In India, the easily available drinking water is tap water. But the good news is tap water contains fluoride that helps in developing strong teeth. However, the children who go to government schools in India often don’t have access to clean tap water at their homes. We ensure that a wholesome meal apart from clean drinking water is provided to all the children going to the government schools. These children can be benefitted through charity fundraising for Akshaya Patra. Donate for an NGO today.

Flipkart Co-Founder and Chairman visits Akshaya Patra Kitchen

Mr Bansal distributes chocolates to children of Akshaya Patra beneficiary school, Government Higher Primary School, Konunkunte, Bengaluru.

Mr Sachin Bansal (fifth from right), Co-founder and Chairman, Flipkart, poses with Team Akshaya Patra for the camera.

The kids of Government Higher Primary School, Konunkunte, Bengaluru, queue up eagerly for their lunch, served by Mr Bansal.

Mr Bansal interacting with members of Team Akshaya Patra to know the workings of the organization.

For more details, visit: Sachin Bansal visits Akshaya Patra kitchen

Fascinating World of Akshaya Patra's Mega Kitchens

This photo blog is a visual inspiration for all those who are intrigued and fascinated by our colossal kitchens. This blog will give you an intimate look into an Akshaya Patra kitchen, with photographs of how exactly we accomplish feeding 1.5 million children daily!

22 kitchens

Starts cooking at 3 am

Mid-day meal will be ready by 9 am

To know more about the kitchens, visit: Akshaya Patra's Mega Kitchens

Looking into the beneficiaries of Akshaya Patra

An NGO in India is providing nutritious food for children every day. What is the impact of the endeavour? You have to meet a few children to decide for yourself. The Akshaya Patra Foundation currently feeds millions of children in its effort to eliminate classroom hunger. It also tries to make a direct connection with the beneficiary children— look into their lives, know more about them and see if the programme of delivering school meals every day is helping them or not.

Let’s meet Yashoda, a 12-year-old girl with an aspiration to become a teacher. She is bright student and one of the toppers in her batch. She had recently lost her father. Yashoda’s mother, a home maker till the demise of her husband, has started working at a garment industry to support the family. Yashoda says, “My father’s wish was that I become a lecturer at a college and educate students. He inspired me and I want to do my best.” She is determined to become a teacher. Yashoda also wants to help society. She wants to educate the less fortunate too when she becomes a teacher. Akshaya Patra serves nutritious mid-day meal at her school every day and she loves pulao. She is also aware that the vegetables served by Akshaya Patra are good for health.

Know more about Yashoda @ Akshaya Patra Beneficiary

Now let’s say cheers to Venu who never misses school on Thursday because of Aloo (Potato) Biryani (mixed rice dish) served by Akshaya Patra on that day every week. Normally Venu likes the food provided by Akshaya Patra every day but, Biryani is his favourite. Venu is a fifth standard student who likes English and wants to be an engineer. He is a bright, hardworking boy whose younger brother and elder sister are also studying at the same school. This means all the siblings are beneficiaries of the Mid-Day Meal Programme.

Know more about Venu @ Stories of Children

Before making a closing note it better to meet another child. Here is Soujanya, an eighth standard class topper, who loves maths and aspires to become a maths teacher. Her amity with numbers started at an early age when she realised she is good with it. She wants to be perfect with the subject. About Akshaya Patra, she says, “I’m lucky to have the meals. It is nutritious and tasty. It helps me concentrate in class.” She is particularly fond of the fruits and loves the biryani served every Thursday.

Know more about Soujanya @ Akshaya Patra Success stories of Children

Think about stories of millions of children like Yashoda, Venu and Soujanya. Many of these children generally belong to economically challenged family backgrounds. A nutritious meal at school every day is a relief to the families too, knowing that their children are well fed in school. Children need good nutrition at this time in their lives for proper growth and cognitive development. It’s a crucial time which is never coming back. If we have to do something, we have to do it now!

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Akshaya Patra kitchen facility in earthquake-hit Nepal

The Akshaya Patra Foundation has always considered relief requests on high priority. Over the last 15 years of its existence, Akshaya Patra has been seen as an active relief provider in terms of food apart from its core cause of providing mid-day meal to Government school children.

Akshaya Patra has been continuously striving towards providing food relief to the earthquake  affected citizens of Nepal. Following the first devastating earthquake on the 25th of April, the Foundation send across 100,000 cooked meals to Nepal and later an additional 2,500 kilograms of emergency food aid was also provided to the region. The two high magnitude earthquakes each of 7.8 and 7.3 left the Himalayan kingdom in a devastating turmoil. The decision and conceptualization of setting up an Akshaya Patra kitchen came by after a joint committee comprising of members from Jamsetji Tata Trust, Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha and Akshaya Patra witnessed the unsafe and unhygienic condition where women are cooking food with the available materials. Over 55,000 Nepalese citizens have gone homeless and there is considerable shortage of food and clean drinking water. 

In view of the needful situation, The Jamsetji Tata Trust requested Akshaya Patra to set up and begin operation in the affected areas. Thus with the support of the Jamsetji Tata Trust and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha, Akshaya Patra is constructing its kitchen facility in Bhaktapur, a location 14 kilometres away from Kathmandu. This Akshaya Patra kitchen will have the capacity to provide up to 100,000 meals per day to the affected people of Nepal. This kitchen will come by as huge relief aid in terms of safe, hygienic and healthy meals for the people of the Himalayan kingdom. 

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Another milestone in the food safety measures of Akshaya Patra

Since the time of inception, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has taken utmost care in providing clean, hygienic and nutritious mid-day meal to the children of Government schools. Over the years of service, Akshaya Patra has equipped itself with latest technologies and processes to enhance food safety measures. Each of the Akshaya Patra kitchens at 24 locations follows standard food safety and manufacturing practices. 

Whether it is a centralised kitchen unit or decentralised, each employee is adheres to the operational manual of the Foundation. Measures like maintaining personal hygiene, quality check during procurement of raw materials, quality maintenance during storage of raw materials, quality and safety during cooking, safety measures during transportation and delivery, post-delivery quality check processes like audits and feedbacks are mandatory and routine tasks at each Akshaya Patra kitchen. 

Usage of Stainless Steel 304 vessels, sterilisation of all vessels, equipment and delivery vans, customised meal delivery vehicles, continual improvement methods like Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma and ISO 22000:2005 certification of 11 kitchens and continued efforts for certification of the remaining kitchens are measures taken to ensure that food prepared at Akshaya Patra kitchen are nutritious, hygienic and tasty.

Moving forward in the path of providing quality mid-day meal, Akshaya Patra recently inaugurated its first Food Safety and Quality Control Laboratory in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. This lab is sponsored by the Jamsetji Tata Trust and is exemplary of a philanthropic and strategic partnership. Akshaya Patra’s Food Safety and Quality Control Lab (FSQC Lab) aims to assess food products from pre-production stage to post production stage. It is equipped with state-of-the-art testing facilities with technologies like the Atago make table top refractometer to analyse total soluble solids, fat purity, adulteration of oil etc. and the Shimadzu make spectrophotometer to evaluate DNA/protein concentration, absorbance, transmittance and the like. It also houses latest technological equipment for measuring microbial count.

The setting up of this specialised lab was a joint effort with technical assistance received from the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru. The inauguration of the lab was graced by noted dignitaries – Dr. Sanjiv Phalsankar, Programme Director, Tata Trusts; Dr. Alok Srivastava, Senior Principal Scientist, Department of Food Safety and Quality Control Lab; Representatives from the Food and Drugs Control Administration, Government of Gujarat; Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation; Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice - Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation and Jaganmohan Krishna Dasa, Unit President, Gujarat. Thanking all the support partners, Madhu Pandit Dasa said that this lab is a step towards ensuring further hygiene and quality of prepared meals and further meeting the food safety standards.

Read more about this new initiative at AkshayaPatra Food Lab at Ahmedabad.

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On her way to a PhD!

We’ve always known that The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s mid-day meal programme has the power to transform lives, and here’s the proof. Saraswati, a beneficiary of the programme throughout high school recently walked into the Akshaya Patra office to have a chat with us on the direction her life has taken, since school.

Spread some hope and joy

The Wall of Hope and Joy is round the corner and the adrenalin is high at The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Bringing back the much enjoyed photography exhibition for the second time, the folks at the Foundation are looking forward to an even bigger turn out to this event than last time.