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.

Why do India’s top NGOs emphasize Mid-Day Meal in schools?

A recent UNICEF report says that more than 80 million children drop out of school before they complete the age of eight years while over 8 million children are already out of school. In contrast, when 1.6 million children in India are benefitted by a top NGO, the same number of children attends school. That’s the impact of Mid-Day Meal Programme that’s run in government schools in India.

Mid-day meals and school attendance 

One of India’s top NGOs Akshaya Patra strives to make both food and education accessible for children since these are the two founding factors of the growth of children. Mid-day meals are directly associated with whether children would attend schools and make the best of the education right from reading and writing in their mother tongue Hindi or Gujarati or participating in extra-curricular activities. The government is working with some top NGOs in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and others to ensure that mid-day meals are served in as many schools as possible so more children could be brought back to school. School administrations have testified that their attendance is going up every year ever since they started serving wholesome lunch in the premises. 

Mid-day meals and children’s dreams 

Several stories of hope at Akshaya Patra are testimonies to the principle that when basic nourishment is available easily to children, they are more likely to dream big and have goals in life. Hundreds of beneficiaries receiving wholesome lunch at school share their dreams of becoming engineers, sports persons, doctors or teachers.

Mid-day meals and growth

A mid-day meal is one of the three most important meals of the day. Families that can only afford meals twice in a day, are typically those who would rather put their children to work so more meals could be earned for the whole family. As a result, many school-going children are forced to drop out since either they are needed at home to take care of their siblings when both parents go to work or they need to work in order to help the family financially. This often becomes a vicious cycle where meal becomes a reason for children to drop out of schools. Thus, back in the year 2000, Akshaya Patra, which is today one of India’s top NGOs in the field, realised that if this gap is filled, the problem of school drop-outs could be solved. The organisation realised that there are several avenues to getting education. Apart from the usual activities at schools like learning Math or Hindi, if mid-day meal is made part of attending school, it could become a major incentive in bringing students back. This would directly affect a healthy growth of the children both physically and mentally while parents would be more willing to send all the children in the family to schools. 

You can make a big difference into this mission by donating to charity.

Food Vs Education - what's the need of the hour?

MFK Fisher said: First we eat, then we do everything else. So the quest for food is somehow more pressing than any other need. Millions of children around the world must work hard to get food, others go without food or still others consume food that’s not nutritious enough. 

Where in the priority of these children would be education then? If they go empty stomach every other night, how will they ever focus on studying? In a country like India, more than children, it’s the parents who constantly suffer from this dilemma. Should they fend for their children first or think about their education? 

Top NGOs in the country are striving to provide food and education to children so they never have to choose between the two most crucial aspects of a child’s growth. Akshaya Patra, however, went one step ahead and decided to incentivise education. When children come to school, they get mid-day meal free of cost. As a result, children are motivated to come to school while their parents feel unburdened of one-time meal so they can send their children to school every day. 

Combining food and education 

While as a basic physical need, the choice is obvious between food and education, yet both are equally important. When Akshaya Patra Foundation, which is today one of the top NGOs in the country channelising charity fundraising for education, set off on its mission to feed the children, it planned both food and education together. In active partnership with the government, the organisation succeeded in providing mid-day meals to millions of children in India. Akshaya Patra completed 2 billion meals in August 2016 and aims at establishing more centralised kitchens to reach out to more schools in 2017. 

With its mission of Food for Education, the organisation channelised schools, volunteers, parents and teachers to spread awareness about sending children to schools. The mid-day meal scheme had two-fold effect. On one hand, it helped in feeding children in schools and solved their problem of at least one-time meal. On the other hand, it encouraged parents to send all their children to school so no child in the family was deprived of education. 

But what was truly unexpected were the various aspirations that got wings in schools. There have been several children who didn’t know that if they were fed well, they would have the time to think about their future or dream about what they want to become as they grow up. Several hope stories emerged out when children came up to share their dreams and ambitions. 

We realised during this journey that food and education are intrinsically related. It’s true that good nutrition boosts the growth of the immune system. This enables children to pursue things other than just the physical needs such as food or sleep. The children who are well-fed find themselves full of energy and motivation to achieve and think. 

Akshaya Patra also engaged several other corporate organisations and individuals encouraging them to donate for a cause such as this. All charity donations going to the organisation are tax deductible donations. 

The Food for Education mission was aimed at realising that both food and education cannot be pursued separately. They need to be seen and sought together. If you think you can be part of a noble cause such as this, you may engage in charity fundraising and donate to us.

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.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s 15 Years of Service

With the vision ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’, The Akshaya Patra Foundation set forth its journey in June 2000. It began implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme by feeding just 1,500 children in five government schools of Bengaluru city. Over the service of 15 years the beneficiary of the NGO has increased to nearly 15 lakhs and it is operational in 24 locations across 10 states of India. As The Akshaya Patra Foundation gets ready for celebrating 15 years of service towards children, it acknowledges the support and aid it has received from generous and sympathetic supporters like you.  It also acknowledges that without the philanthropic support that the Foundation has received over the years such a leap in beneficiary base and operational expansion would not have been possible. We express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you for having journeyed with us for over a decade.

In order to further the potential and reach of the Mid-Day Meal Programme, Akshaya Patra brings together dedication, technological innovation, standard operational processes and good governance into practice. The amalgamation of all these elements allows the Foundation to serve clean, hygienic, freshly cooked nutritious meal to lakhs of children every day across all locations. To get a quick review of the past 15 years and the distance we have covered in reaching our mission of feeding 5 million children by 2020, join us in celebrating 15 years of service through which lakhs of underserved children received the goodness of food and much needed education.

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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