Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in India. School lunch programme is operated nicely by this foundation.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India. IN 2000, this organisation was established to counter classroom hunger & aid in children education.
Across India this foundation feeds about 16,00,907 children across 19,039 Government schools and Government-aided schools every day.
This NGO serves locally palatable wholesome meals from its 52 kitchens operating in 12 States and 2-Union Territories.
They distribute hygienic, nutritious & delicious food to children every day. For an entire academic year, a charity contribution of 1,100 can feed a child every day.
Every penny of donation is utilised to benefit children through the Mid-Day Meal Programme. 92% of total contribution is used to meet the Mid-Day Meal Programme cost and the remaining 8% is used to meet the programme management cost.
Go green initiative
Every day the Akshaya Patra kitchen produces about 350 kg organic waste. In an effort to reduce the waste, they set up biogas plants in some of their kitchens.
On earthday-22nd April, they started this initiative with the centralized kitchens at Bellary & Vasanthpura (Bengaluru) & now it extends to six kitchens across India.
These biogas plants have the capacity to process 1-tonne/day of organic waste, generated 120 to 150 m3 of biogas the equivalent of 30 kilograms of LPG.
They consume this gas in the kitchen of the foundation & save about 38,500 INR per month. Because of this about 10% of total energy is saved.
They have also installed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems at some of its kitchens as green initiative. This system is based on water & it produces 80-100 units of electricity/day.
It power’s the facility’s daytime energy requirement. The Bengaluru plant produces 10 KW of power & it is totally consumed by the facility.
At the same time Surat plant generates 12 KW of power. They have some of surplus power as fed back to the grid for a credit.
The foundation is open to share their knowledge in helping other entities to achieve their environmental goals. CEO of Akshaya Patra, Shridhar Venkat has on record said that “The blueprints and processes of our waste management and clean energy generation systems are available to whomsoever who asks for it”.
It is sure that that the primary cause of Akshaya Patra is actually to complement the creation of Srila Prabhupada by implementation of the mid-day meal programme.
By the time of pandemic COVID-19, when lockdown was announced, the foundation undertook a massive food program to feed the migrant workers & anyone who is needy/hungry. They provided grocery kits as well as cooked food as per the requirement.
Akshaya Patra Foundation USA
In USA, Akshaya Patra exceeded its fundraising goal of $3.2m for 2012 by raising $5.6m. That included a generous grant of $2m by Caterpillar Foundation for building a kitchen in Uttar Pradesh, India.
| Are you an
Entrepreneur or Startup? Do you have a Success Story to Share? SugerMint would like to share your success story. We cover entrepreneur Stories, Startup News, Women entrepreneur stories, and Startup stories
|
News: Akshaya Patra Foundation and Cadila Pharma help 3000 students at their homes through mid-day meals.