The Akshaya Patra Foundation is tackling the hunger problem in India. It started 18 years ago feeding children of just 5 schools in Bangalore is now the world’s first and largest NGO feeding 1.76 million children daily across 12 states in India a healthy mid-day school meal. In Gujarat itself, over half a million meals are served daily to children in government schools in Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, Surat, Kalol and Bhuj.
On Monday, the Akshaya Patra commemorated its 3 billionth meal at Mathura in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He addressed the gathering and showed his support to the Foundation’s initiative by serving the ceremonial 3 billionth meal. Akshaya Patra is today an integral partner of the government’s mid-day school meal scheme, with an ambition to serve meals to 5 million children daily by 2025. These meals are not just essential to end hunger and malnutrition, but they play a key role in encouraging families to send their children to school, especially the girl child.
With the support of the government, private sector, donors, and all the other stakeholders, the organisation is poised to realise its vision ‘no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’ Apart from the children, Akshaya Patra also feeds other marginalized groups like widows, pregnant and lactating mothers in need, and people displaced by natural disasters. The Foundation is continuously leveraging technology to cater to millions of children and other such beneficiaries.
Its state-of-the-art kitchens in 42 locations across India have become a subject of study and attract curious visitors from around the world. Some of these kitchens produce over100,000 nutritionally balanced meals in under 3 hours daily. With frugal innovation and funding from the government, they are able to feed a child for an entire month in just £1.
Closer home, there is a massive hunger problem too. With 3 million children at risk of going to bed hungry in the UK there is a need for urgent action to adopt innovative and scalable models like this to help end hunger. Akshaya Patra is a story of innovation and social impact. They have now brought their expertise to the UK, and are feeding 2,000 meals daily in London to the needy. With plans under way to scale up to produce 10,000 nutritious meals daily they are aiming to tackle the hunger problem experienced by children, homeless and elderly in the UK in the next few month.
