Akshaya Patra as an NGO in Ahmedabad

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.                        

                                                                                                                              - Albert Schweitzer

Our life on earth is counted by the virtuous deeds we do for others.  We may not be able to help everyone but we can do something to help someone. There are many ways to support those who are in need like donating to charity, lending a helping hand to non-profit organisations or sponsoring a child etc.

We know that in government schools most of the children tend to be drop-outs when hunger remains a constraint. The performance of a student in class is directly dependant on the nutrition he/she is getting. Most of the children come with empty stomachs and doesn’t have the energy to concentrate in class. They lose interest in studies and end as drop outs. The non-profit organisations like Akshaya Patra serves mid-day meals to children in government schools with continuous support from the Central Government and the State Governments operating on a Public-Private-Partnership model. Education reports claims that in Gujarat, 58 of every 100 students who enrolled in schools are dropouts failing to make it to high schools, which is the 16th highest dropout rate in the country.

The non-profit organisation serves nutritious mid-day meals across 10 states of India. One among the states where Akshaya Patra serves mid-day meals is Gujarat and in the state, Ahmedabad is one of the locations where the NGO runs its programme. Ahmedabad has one of the largest kitchens in India with the capacity to prepare for 400,000 children. Currently as an NGO in Ahmedabad, it is feeding 132,581 children in 524 schools each day. The centralised kitchen spreads over two acres in a 3 storeyed building producing 200,000 meals in five hours. The hot, nutritious meals are delivered across the schools through 44 meal distribution vehicles. The kitchen was inaugurated by Honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Anandiben on August 2014. She said, “I strongly believe the mid-day meal from The Akshaya Patra Foundation will fulfil the goal of making Gujarat free of malnutrition. I hope the healthy and nutritious food provided to children from Akshaya Patra will build healthy minds and body. The Gujarat government is eager to support Akshaya Patra’s activities to build a strong society and a strong nation. I wish success to all the people working in the new centralized kitchen of The Akshaya Patra Foundation.” 

To prevent the dropout rates in schools, Akshaya Patra serves meals to the children with the aim of promoting education.  Meals are served keeping in mind the local taste of each region. The menu consisting of roti, peanut rice, jeera rice, mix veg curry with soy chunk, vegetables, mix dal consisting of masoor dal , channa dal,  lots of vegetables, kichdi  etc. are served to the children of Ahmedabad. Unlimited food is served keeping in mind their requirements. For some of the children, the noon meal may be the only proper meal they get a day. The kitchen has a food safety and quality control laboratory that has high-precision testing instruments to enhance quality and safety of the meal.

The other centres in Gujarat where the NGO serves food are Vadodara and Surat. As a result of the quality and nutritious food served, children are interested in coming to school, the enrolment in schools has increased, and micronutrient deficiencies are solved. Parents are happy to send their children to schools as they get a proper meal a day.

Today Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest mid-day meal programme serving wholesome food to over 1.5 million children from 11,360 schools across 10 states in India. Akshaya Patra plays an effective role in promoting education by providing nutritious meals to children in Government schools.

For Akshaya Patra to keep providing these children with nutritious food for education every day and expand its reach to help more children, the organisation needs support and participation from people, corporates, philanthropists and the generous donors. Contributions as donation to NGO can be done in many ways. One can donate to this charity online, which is considered the easiest method of all.

How is the Quality of Mid-day Meals Maintained?

The Mid-day Meal Rules, 2015, notified by the Government of India (GoI) puts forth certain stipulations pertaining to the meals served to school children as a part of the Mid-day Meal Scheme. Among other things, it stresses on the nutritional standards and quality of mid-day meals; the latter being given due importance this time around.

Mid-day Meals Quality Guidelines

As far as the nutritional standards are concerned, it is stipulated that mid-day meals should provide 450 calories and 12 g protein for primary students and 700 calories and 20 g protein for upper primary students. The implementing bodies, i.e., government schools, partnering non-profit organisations, etc., have to plan the menu accordingly. They can rotate the food items, or vegetables that are used in preparation of these food items, on a daily basis to ensure that the children get necessary nutrients in prescribed quantity.

Now, the personnel from an accredited lab can evaluate hot cooked meal samples as and when deemed necessary to ensure its nutritional value and quality.

These new guidelines bring about a much-needed change to the ambitious scheme. The quality of meal served to children deserves more attention, considering that the number of beneficiaries of this programme runs to the tune of over 100 million. Thus, not taking the quality aspect seriously will mean putting millions of children at risk and any untoward incident will affect the whole programme. The authorities need to ensure that such incidents do not occur; implementing stringent quality check regulations is one way to do this.

The notification makes it mandatory for every school to have a facility for storing raw materials and cooking meals without compromising on the hygiene. Additionally, it’s important that the cooking staff maintains personal hygiene and wears gloves, masks, caps, etc., while cooking in order to avoid contamination. Also, there should be a proper arrangement of clean water and a waste disposal site in the vicinity.

The notification of new rules is a crucial step that will help in improving the quality of Mid-day Meal Programme. When a programme is being run at such a grand scale, it has to be constantly evaluated to minimize problems and make it more effective. One of the non-profit organisations, the Akshaya Patra Foundation’s handling of Mid-day Meal Programme is an apt example of the same.

How Akshaya Patra is Showing the Way?

The Akshaya Patra Foundation started serving meals to children in 2001—well before MDMS in its current form came into existence—and joined the Government to implement this programme when it was started. At the Foundation, elaborate measures are taken to ensure that the quality of food served as a part of the Mid-day Meal Programme in schools is up to the mark.

The Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is implemented in Akshaya Patra kitchens and the entire staff is trained in this aspect. Even in the decentralized kitchens in Baran, Rajasthan, and Nayagarh, Odisha, where women self-help groups cook mid-day meals, due importance is given to quality. The staff at these kitchens is trained and monitored by a team appointed by the Foundation.

In fact, Akshaya Patra’s expertise on this aspect has even prompted several State Governments to ask the organisation to organise workshops on food safety, quality, and personal hygiene for cook-cum-helpers in their states.

Personal hygiene is also given utmost importance at Akshaya Patra kitchens. Both, kitchen staff and visitors are provided caps, masks, gloves, and disinfectant to avoid contamination of food. The raw materials that are to be procured are done only after taking food safety standards into consideration and are accepted only after thorough inspection. Vegetables are sanitized in chlorine water before they are cut and vessels are sanitized with hot water before the cooking process begins.

Even the menu is based on regional palate, keeping in mind recommended nutritional standards. Thus, the kitchens in the North follow a wheat-based menu, while those in the South follow a rice-based menu. In order to ensure that the nutritional standards are met, a variety of vegetables (E.g., beetroot, carrots, pumpkins, brinjals, etc.) and pulses (E.g., lentils, soybeans, kidney beans, etc.) are used and the cooked food is subjected to Theoretical Nutritional Value Calculation as per the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and lab analysis.

Food is packed in steam-sterilized vessels and dispatched only after its taste and texture are checked. Before loading the food in delivery vehicles, their cleanliness is also checked. Even school authorities are advised to check whether the food vessels are clean, covered tightly with a lid, food is warm, etc.

The adoption of global quality practices, such as Kaizen and Six Sigma, has helped the Foundation improve the efficiency of the entire process, thus ensuring that they reach out to over 1.5 million children with nutritious meal.

A lot goes into ensuring the quality of mid-day meals; right from careful selection of menu to proper hygiene. Having said that, all these efforts are worth taking because the mid-day meal is at times, the only meal many of these children afford. In a country, where malnutrition is a chronic problem, the mid-day meal comes as a blessing in disguise.

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