Akshaya Patra Bangalore

Before the mid-day meal programme was initiated, children often only had a glass of milk in the morning or peanuts in the afternoon. With their only real meal being at night, children often fainted during the day. Once Akshaya Patra began providing a regular lunch, teachers were overwhelmed by the response; children in these schools became more energetic and enthusiastic. Enrollment also increased; children who were forced to work for their wages began coming to school because they would receive a meal that their families could not provide. There are touching instances of other schools stopping the Akshaya Patra vans and asking them to feed their children as well.

Akshaya Patra's success is based on its highly efficient cooking and delivery system. Kitchens that maintain strict hygiene are designed to cook enormous quantities of food daily. Industrial steam generators cook enough rice for 1000 students in 15 minutes in South India and in North India, ingenious machines make 10000 rotis an hour. The food is packed into custom containers with minimum human handling and is delivered in specially designed vehicles.

Akshaya Patra currently operates in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. While most of the areas served are urban and semi-urban, the foundation also serves rural areas through decentralised kitchens which are run by women's self-help groups. These decentralised kitchens also provide employment for women in remote regions.

The foundation sees its work as not just charity, but as something that will fuel the next generation in the country. It believes that an educated populace is the key to a better society and a hungry child cannot learn. Its work has garnered well deserved accolades, including the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award 2003 and the Government of Rajasthan Independence Day Award, 2006. The same year, students from the Harvard Business School came to India to study the foundation's programme and introduced it as a case-study in the Harvard Business Journal as a model of time-management.

Akshaya Patra has also garnered an impressive amount of public and private support. President Elect Barack Obama on his campaign trail called it "An imaginative approach that has the potential to serve as a model for other countries."Alexius Collette, CEO, Philips India, notes that "the food preparation and distribution is very well organised; a jewel in India." All the governments of the states in which it operates contribute towards feeding school children.

Companies such as Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Philips India, HDFC Mutual Fund, Airtel Bharati Enterprises, ICICI Bank and the Aditya Birla Group support the foundation. Other charitable organisations such as the Infosys Foundation, the JSW Foundation, the Prashant H. Fadia Foundation and the Deshpande Foundation all buttress Akshaya Patra's important mission. In fact, the Infosys Foundation has solely funded the kitchen in Hubli (North Karnataka) to provide food for 200000 children a day.

Akshaya Patra is constantly improving its kitchens and systems. South Bangalore was the first to have a custom designed gravity flow kitchen. This design maximises operational and cost efficiency. By feeding hungry children, Akshaya Patra is feeding not just the bodies, but also the souls of children who will run India.