Our Problem Statement
One in every 10 people globally suffers from chronic hunger. Of this, 149 million young children are estimated to be so acutely undernourished that their growth and development has been irreversibly stunted. In India alone, 6.7 million children in India go hungry for longer than 24 hours.
Every child deserves enough good food to eat, and every child deserves access to education. Education is a well-evidenced route out of poverty in the longer term.
Despite this, 250 million children worldwide are out of school because of poverty, conflict, and hunger. An empty stomach ensures that a child will not step foot in a classroom. Either because they are looking for something to eat, or due to hunger pangs rendering them unable to focus.
The Mid Day Meal Program
Today, Akshaya Patra runs the largest mid-day school meals programme in the world as a public-private-partnership with the Indian Government, wherein we act as implementing partners for the PM Poshan Abhiyaan in India.
In collaboration with both central and state governments, we provide more than 2 million school children with a healthy vegetarian meal across 24,000 Indian schools in 16 states, prepared from more than 70 cutting-edge kitchens. Our emphasis on efficiency means it costs just Rs 1600 to feed an Indian child for an entire year.
Since first serving 1500 meals in Bengaluru in 2000, we have now served more than 3 Billion meals to children across the country. Thanks to the extraordinary kindness and generosity of our supporters, we have experienced incredible growth in our mission.
How We Make Our Meals
We invest in technology and engineering to ensure that Akshaya Patra's network of centralised kitchens is always meeting a gold standard in safety, cost efficiency and innovation. We have pioneered the "Gravity Kitchen" design wherein kitchen structures and workflows are arranged vertically, to take advantage of gravity. This removes the need for various belts and lifts, saving energy and improving sustainability parameters. One such kitchen can make up to 100,000 meals a day.
Several employees at both our centralised and decentralised kitchens are parents of children who attend schools being served by Akshaya Patra. This further adds to the inherent love and care we put into our food. Our menus are constantly rotating, and are updated as per local palettes in different locations. We serve three item vegetarian meals, with a surprise dessert served twice a week.
Every kitchen of Akshaya Patra follows strict protocols and is monitored by our in house food safety lab, which regularly monitors safety, hygiene and nutritional parameters of the food.
