Another Feather In The Cap – Mangalagiri Kitchen

Summary:

With the objective to benefit more and more children with the Mid-Day Meal Programme, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been relentlessly striving to expand its reach. One if the recent developments is the inauguration of the Mangalagiri Kitchen in Andhra Pradesh. It is an addition to the existing eight kitchens in the state.

Body of content:

The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India, now known as PM POSHAN Scheme, since 2000. The Foundation is cognisant that in its mission to feed the children, it has to consistently maintain high standards with regards to quality of meals, hygiene, cleanliness, and punctuality in preparing and delivering meals, each day. Hence, during the past 21 years, Akshaya Patra has been strategically and sustainably expanding its reach to provide regular nutritious school meals to children.

Overview of Akshaya Patra’s service

Akshaya Patra began serving children in the year 2000. As a first step, the Foundation provided nutritious meals to 1,500 children in five government schools in Bengaluru. Soon, it realised the pronounced need of these meals. Gradually, Akshaya Patra started spreading its wings beyond Bengaluru and Karnataka. Presently, the Foundation has a beneficiary base of 18,00,907 children studying in 19,039 government schools and government-aided schools. It runs both centralised and decentralised kitchens to feed the children in urban, semi-urban, and remote areas. Currently, Akshaya Patra kitchens are located in 60 locations across 14 States and 2 Union Territories.

About Mangalagiri Kitchen

• Launch & supporters: This is one of the recently launched centralised kitchens of Akshaya Patra. Honourable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was the Chief Guest for the occasion and inaugurated the kitchen. Special guests at the event were Honourable Minister of Education, Shri Audimulapu Suresh; Honourable Minister of Finance & Planning, Shri Buggana Rajendranath Reddy; Honourable Chairman – TTD, Shri Y.V. Subba Reddy; Honourable Member of Parliament, Shri Lavu Srikrishna Devarayulu (MP – Rajya Sabha), and Honourable MLA, Shri Alla Rama Krishna Reddy. The event was presided by Shri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa in the presence of Shri Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman – Akshaya Patra.

This kitchen is supported by the Airports Authority of India. Shri R. Madhavan, Regional Executive Director, and Shri P.V. Rao Directors – Airports Authority of India, were the guests of honour at the event. The patron guest for the event was Shri Sanjeev Kumar, IAS., Chairman – Airports Authority of India. Shri Buditha Rajasekhar, IAS., PS, Department of School Education AP, Shri Vivek Yadav, IAS., Collector & District Magistrate – Guntur, and Shri Arif Hafeez, IPS were the special invitees for the event.

• About the kitchen: This state-of-the-art centralised kitchen will provide nutritious school meals and impact the lives of more than 50,000 children. This will further the progress of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India. The kitchen is built on latest technology with gravitational technology as one of the main highlights. It has a Condensed Recovery System, Duracrete flooring, ETP for waste management, and fuel saving boiler as an eco-friendly measure.

• Meal menu & delivery: Akshaya Patra will be serving as per the Jagananna Gorumudda Scheme so that it continues to adhere to the dietary norms while serving the local palate. A fleet of 15 vehicles will deliver the food to schools in insulated containers which can maintain the temperature of food for more than 6 hours.

Support Akshaya Patra’s endeavour:

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India has been a potential intervention in the education sector. It has positively impacted the health, academic, and overall development of children. The meal programme has resulted in increased enrolment rate, attendance, and performance of the children. Help Akshaya Patra to continue to feed the children and create nourished and nurtured generations. You can donate directly, conduct fundraising campaigns, or join as a CSR partner. You can also spread the word in your social network. In conclusion, donate to NGO, nourish children and save tax while you engage in doing good

Five benefits of donating

When you engage in any charitable act, it reflects the
compassionate, humane, and responsible side of you.

Often, we get caught up in the regular humdrum of life; we get so busy that we tend to overlook those who are in need of our support. While attending to our regular responsibilities and fulfilling the required duties, we miss to nurture the benevolent and compassionate traits in us. This is where NGOs come into play. NGOs are organisations that work at the ground level to bring about a tangible and sustainable change in the society. The work of these organisations encompasses issues related to empowerment, social development, environment protection, health, education, poverty, hunger and similar issues. Hence, by engaging with NGOs, be it in the capacity of a volunteer, donor, knowledge partner or a goodwill ambassador, you can create a huge impact.

In view of the significant role that NGOs play, even the government encourages individuals and businesses to engage with and contribute to charitable organisations!

The Income Tax Policy of Government of India clearly supports philanthropic contributions made towards charitable organisations and NGOs. As per Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, monetary contributions made towards a registered NGO or a charitable organisation qualifies to receive tax exemption on the donated amount. Whether the donor receives 100% exemption or 50% exemption on the donated amount depends on the cause and work of the charitable organisation.

Tax deductible donations have five benefits:

1. Aids the beneficiary NGO in its operations and helps the organisation to sustain and expand its service.
2. Positively impacts lives of beneficiaries of the NGO.
3. Upholds the values of compassion and generosity, as well as instils a sense of ‘giving back to the society’.  
4. Uplifts the community by making people aware, responsible, and a part of the solution for various issues.
5. Makes the donor eligible to receive tax exemption.

NGOs understand the worth of each penny and
ensures that the donation funds are utilised in the right way.

No matter what issue the NGO is working for, every bit of your support will be valued and looked forward to. So, you can choose to support an NGO depending on the cause you identify with most. For instance, if you want to support education and health of children hailing from socio-economically challenging backgrounds, then you can support NGOs like The Akshaya Patra Foundation that accept tax deductible donations. Akshaya Patra is one of the pioneer NGOs in India to start implementing the Midday Meal Programme. It has been providing nutritious school lunch to children in government schools and government-aided schools for the past 21 years. 

Currently, Akshaya Patra provides regular midday meals to 18,00,907 children studying in 19,039 schools across 58 locations of 13 States and 1 Union Territory. When you donate to this NGO:

1. You make nutritious food accessible to children, support their education, and help them to progress towards their dreams and goals.
2. The midday meals contribute to the overall development of children by enhancing their concentration and improving their performance in academics and co-curricular activities.
3. These meals improve attendance and reduces drop-out rate, thereby ensuring continuity in education.
4. You create a lasting impact in the lives of young, determined, and aspirational children.
5. You become eligible to receive tax exemption on your donated amount (applicable for donation of ₹500 and above).

Considering the cause and the diligence in financial transparency, Akshaya Patra is considered among the best NGO in India to donate to.

In conclusion, your one moment of compassion and contribution can create a phenomenal difference in the society. So, while you go about fulfilling the necessary responsibilities, do attend to your benevolent side too! Get double the benefit for making tax deductible donations – to support children by doing good while you save tax.

Make this world a better place to live through midday meals

Midday meals open the gates to schools and paves way for aspirations of lakhs of children across India.

Education is one of the most potential gamechanger in eliminating the vicious cycle of poverty-hunger-illiteracy. To support education of children belonging to socio-economically challenging backgrounds, Government of India has initiated several education schemes. Alongside, the introduction of Mid-Day Meal Scheme for government schools and government-aided schools was a huge boon for children. Midday meal acts as an incentive for parents to send their children to school with the hope that children will receive at least one full meal for the day. Once at school, children inevitably get introduced to academic lessons and other developmental activities. This not only contributes to the literacy factor, but also enables children to hone their talents as well as instils a sense of confidence in them to achieve their aspirations.

Akshaya Patra – enriching lives

To maximise the benefits of Central Mid-Day Meal Scheme, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in India partnered with the Central Government of India and various State Governments to implement the scheme. Akshaya Patra is one of the pioneer NGOs that stepped in as an implementing partner with the vision “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.” Headquartered in Bengaluru, Akshaya Patra has been providing freshly cooked, nutritious, and locally palatable meals to schoolchildren across India for the last 21 years.

Currently, Akshaya Patra feeds more than 18-lakh children, on every school day across India

By operating in a public-private partnership model, Akshaya Patra expanded its operations from one location in 2000 to 58 locations in 2021. The Foundation understands the significance of each plate of midday meal, hence takes utmost care in the preparation and delivery of these meals. It prepares the meals in its own state-of-the-art centralised kitchens and has its own delivery logistics to transport the meals to schools across 13 states and 1 Union Territory. To ensure highest quality meals, all the kitchens of Akshaya Patra follow industry standard operating processes with utmost adherence to cleanliness and hygiene practices. The kitchens follow a cyclic menu and prepare locally palatable meals in compliance with the dietary norms as stated by the Central Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

Akshaya Patra feeding

Midday meal significantly impacts lives of children by directly contributing to their nutrition levels, health, and learning capacity.

Impact studies on Mid-Day Meal Programme reveals that consumption of regular school meals results in:

• increased school enrolment
• regularised attendance
• decreased drop-out rate
• improved health of children
• better academic performance
• continuity of schooling

This is clearly visible in the varied aspirations and strong determination of Akshaya Patra beneficiaries.

• Sachin, a Standard VI student of Hanspal Primary School in Odisha aspires to be a pilot. He says, “Flying high gives you a whole different perspective in life. I know that being a pilot is difficult, but it is not impossible.”
• Shyaali, a Standard VIII student of Ekaathmanagar School, Nagpur aspires to be a dentist. She says, “I do not lose my head over daily activities at home and school. I am more focussed now. My mom would have been happy if I was like this, two years back. For her, I will become a dentist one day and open my own clinic.”
• Rajesh, a student of Chandrabaghabai Education Society, dreams of becoming a rap artist. He says, “No work is a task, if you do it wholeheartedly. And my heart beats to rap music. I want to be a rap artist. I know it is not all that easy and I don’t have a Bollywood background. But I will work very hard with all my heart and get to the top on my own.”

Support this NGO in India to expand its service and benefit more children with nutritious school meals.

One meal a day can do wonders for children and help them achieve what their heart desires. Together, let’s make the world a better place by ensuring regular and nutritious school meals. Contribute online donation and instantly make schooldays of children better.

Challenges in getting children back to school after the pandemic

Delivering millions of smiles through midday meals

Most children like to play on the ground instead of holding books. As most of them crave more games and fewer studies, the pandemic outbreak was in their favour as it brought education to almost a halt. Due to the lockdown, schools were shut down and worked with alternate modes to teach to cope with the outbreak of the virus. These alternate methods, challenged the families that couldn’t afford technical gadgets for their children’s education. Based on the family income, underprivileged families had no choice but to get a helping hand in the family’s income. Hence, forced the child to quit studies and help them with labour jobs. Due to the education system going digital, children were deprived of resources and could not access online classes. The few who had access found it hard to cope with new methods of learning. Slowly, students lost interest in studying for long hours in a classroom environment.

Pandemic not only imposed a huge challenge to mankind but also impacted children in many ways. Some of the major interruptions include lack of classroom environment, breaking of home-school routine and reduction in attention span.

Did you know? 290 million children were deprived of education because of the pandemic.

Recently, the Government of India and a few State Governments decided to reopen schools. This announcement excited the children as they were eagerly waiting to break the monotony of staying indoors and going back to schools.

It was evident to mankind that the pandemic gave a hard time to the have-nots’ in terms of food, shelter, and medical facilities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the children were affected and were deprived of food and healthy nutrition. Prior to the pandemic, this issue was taken care of by various NGOs in India and the Government together with the Mid-Day Meal Programme. As the pandemic outbreak scattered the students from school, facilities like free education, food, and health were paused. To overcome these challenges of getting children back to school after the pandemic, the services that were paused had to resume, like the Midday Meal Scheme in India. Schemes like Midday meals are an effective initiative to indulge students in coming to school even before the pandemic struck the nation. Therefore, children came back to school for their love for school meals.

Akshaya Patra’s role in implementing midday meal scheme in India

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit organisation that started implementing the midday meal scheme in Bangalore to feed 1500 school children in 2000. Today, the organisation serves nutritious meals to a million children across the country. The organisation is one NGO in India that strives to eradicate classroom hunger. Although covid-19 had an adverse effect on the education system, the organisation supported midday meal beneficiaries with happiness kits. As the students are back to school, the organisation is shares the excitement of children to resume the service of feeding children.  To help and feed the children who are back to school, donate online to join hands with Akshaya Patra and encourage a healthy journey of learning.

Dream India – Happy Children’s Day

Children are the future of a nation as they grow up to become responsible leaders and future citizens. To grow into great citizens and make the nation proud, every child must dream and stick to the hope of success. Children’s day is celebrated on 14th November every year as a mark of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary. As he believed that every child needs to be appreciated for their being and growth, his birthday is celebrated to appreciate every child of India. Each child has a charm and the ability to achieve their goal; their skills and talents must be encouraged at the right time with the right guidance. This helps them have a happy and cheerful childhood. Every child’s dream is like a growing seed for a sustainable future that needs to be nourished and catered to achieve great heights. Top NGOs in India and individuals come together on various occasions to support children. They take care of their education, health, well-beings, nutrition, shelter, physical development, etc.

The reality today

Life is sometimes unfortunate and leads to misfortunes, not all children of the nation receive equal happiness. Some lose homes, parents and other livelihood needs at a very early age. This hampers their childhood in many ways. It leads to poverty, hunger and lack of education.

Among 1.380 billion people, children make 28.6% of the population. Out of which, 23 million children are deprived of basic amenities of life.

To ensure that every child gets an equal and right opportunity, top NGOs in India, Central and State Governments and other organisations engage and strive towards achieving their needs. Every child has the potential to build skills and root for their desires and happiness. As few children have the privilege to access every need, top NGOs in India build foundations for such children. Apart from such NGOs for children, individuals volunteer to donate and help children with their contributions.

Children are like the hidden stars of the sky. They appear when the sky is clearer. For them to appear and shine bright in life, they must be provided with clear paths with less hardship and accessible opportunities.

Did you know? Children deprived of the right nutrition account for 30% of the Indian population.

Donate for children’s unlimited food and education

Food and nutrition are the essential requirements for a child’s healthy life. In India, more than 9.2 lakh children suffer from malnutrition. In 2000, the Supreme Court mandated that every child must receive a definite proportion of calories in the form of midday meals, that includes proteins, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, water, and fibre, proportional to their age. Since food helps and keeps the child active and healthy, it is necessary to provide every child with the right amount of food at the right time. Midday meals ensure a balanced diet in children which enhances a healthy living. To serve proper meals to the children deprived of nutritional needs, NGOs dedicate themselves to their service. They strive towards helping these children meet their dreams. With the help of Government programmes and schemes, NGOs deliver the privilege to certain sections of children who cannot afford a healthy meal.

Children’s Day is a one-day celebration that lasts until the sun sets; the next day is again a dark harsh reality for children deprived of essential needs. It is important to address these needs and necessities every day. As Children’s day is an important day to every child, it is an opportunity for us as their well-wishers to think about their problems and solve the same. It is essential to celebrate this day for their benefit. The Akshaya Patra Foundation serves mid-day meals to Government school-going children irrespective of celebration and festival days. Children’s Day is an auspicious occasion to join hands with the organization to donate for children and feed them.