Akshaya Patra Foundation

History

Akshaya Patra was started in 2000 by feeding 1,500 children in five schools in Bengaluru, Karnataka, with the vision that no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger. The objective was to address the issue of classroom hunger and support the health and education of the children by providing them with hot, nutritious, and tasty mid-day meals.

When the Government of India’s flagship programme, the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme (now known as the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan) was launched in 2001, Akshaya Patra collaborated with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, and state governments to implement it.

Programmes

Akshaya Patra strives to address the issue of classroom hunger and support children’s health and education by providing them nutritious mid-day meals every day. The Foundation serves over 2.25 million children through its network of kitchens in 78 locations in 16 states and 3 UTs, thus support their nutrition and education.

In Vadodara and Surat in Gujarat, Ongole in Andhra Pradesh and Warangal in Telangana, Akshaya Patra implements the Anganwadi feeding programme to provide food to children in the age group of 3-6 in Anganwadis and pregnant women and lactating mothers in the area. Over 54,000 children and women benefit from the programme.

In addition to school feeding, Akshaya Patra also runs a programme to feed homeless women living in ashrams in Vrindavan, thus ensuring their continued access to nourishing food and guaranteeing them a life of dignity and respect.

In numerous instances, Akshaya Patra has leveraged its infrastructure and resources to provide humanitarian food relief during emergency situations such as floods, droughts and landslides across the country and beyond the borders. In April 2014, Akshaya Patra collaborated with Tata Trusts and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha to set up a temporary centralised kitchen and provide food relief to people in the aftermath of the earthquake.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Akshaya Patra extended humanitarian food relief through its network of kitchens across the country and served over 244 million meals to people when everyone was finding it difficult to source food due to the containment measures put in place to curb the pandemic outbreak.

Akshaya Patra’s network of kitchens spans 16 states and 3 UTs: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

It has established centralised kitchens in 76 locations. The scale and operational efficiency of these kitchens help maximise the programme's impact. Akshaya Patra’s kitchens have been a subject of study for the Harvard Business School on two occasions: 2007 and 2017.

Awards and recognitions

1. Gandhi Peace Prize 2016 for its contribution towards the socioeconomic development of India by providing mid-day meals to millions of children across the country.
2. Nikkei Asia Prize in the Economic and Business Innovation Category for supporting education by nourishing children, thus playing a pivotal role in the socioeconomic development of the region.
3. Outlook POSHAN Special Jury Award 2019 for its valuable contribution in the Urban Nutrition (Institution) category.
4. BBC Global Food Champion Award 2019 for its contribution to implementing the school feeding programme.
5. Akshaya Patra has been awarded the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Gold Shield for Excellence in Financial Reporting on seven occasions. It has been inducted into the ICAI Hall of Fame for winning the Gold Shield for five years in a row from FY 2008-09 to FY 2012-13.

References

References

1. "Akshaya Patra: Improving Education, One Meal at a Time".
2. "Partnership for Progress: The Akshaya Patra Foundation and Round Table India Unite for Philanthropy".
3. (5 April 2024). "Akshaya Patra's 4 billion meals milestone commemorated at the UN". The Hindu.
4. Nilanjana, Bhowmick. "In India, the World's Largest School Lunch Program". TIME.
5. (9 March 2019). "Siliconeer | Prime Minister Modi Serves Akshaya Patra's 3 Billionth Meal | Siliconeer".
6. Yadav, Harshita PathakPuja. (2019-09-23). "How mid-day meals are prepared for over 1.75 million children in India".
7. (27 July 2014). "A New Approach to Fighting Child Malnutrition in India".
8. (19 August 2011). "NGO achieves landmark figure in serving mid-day meals". The Hindu.
9. (23 June 2015). "Akshaya Patra serves meals to quake victims". The Times of India.
10. Upadhyay, Aishwarya. (17 July 2020). "With Over 7 Crore Meals, Akshaya Patra Foundation Is Reaching Out To The Most Vulnerable Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic".
11. "The Akshaya Patra Foundation serves 77 million meals across India during this Global Pandemic Covid-19 – India Education | Latest Education News | Global Educational News | Recent Educational News".
12. "Akshaya Patra: Feeding India's Schoolchildren - Case - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School".
13. "Akshaya Patra: Impact at Scale - Case - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School".
14. "GANDHI PEACE PRIZE-2015 AWARDED TO VIVEKANDANDA KENDRA, INDIA".
15. "Gandhi Peace Prize for 2015,2016,2017 and 2018 announced".
16. "Past Winners | Nikkei Asia Award : Nikkei Inc".
17. (4 August 2019). "Meet the Winners of the Inaugural Outlook Poshan Awards 2019".
18. "BBC World Service - the Food Chain - the Food Chain Global Champion Award 2019 winner: Akshaya Patra".
19. (8 February 2014). "The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been awarded the Gold Shield and Hall of Fame by the ICAI (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the year 2012-13 under the Category XI- Not-for-Profit Sector". The Times of India.