BACKGROUND
India has experienced significant economic development over the past two decades, yet many are still struggling to provide food for their families. For too many children in India, hunger is a barrier to education, keeping millions locked in a cycle of poverty.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the World’s largest NGO-run Mid-Day meal program serving wholesome school lunch to over 1.76 mn children in 15024 schools across 12 states in India.
Akshaya Patra strives to eliminate classroom hunger and aims at countering malnutrition and supporting the right to education of socio-economically disadvantaged children. By feeding them one wholesome meal a day, we give them the nourishment and motivation they need to pursue an education for a better future. It is our endeavor to reach out to every child at the grass-root level of society.
FOOD FOR EDUCATION
Would you be able to study and learn if hunger was your classroom companion?
Classroom hunger affects children’s ability to learn and grow. To solve this challenge, Akshaya Patra began the Food for Education initiative. All it costs is INR 1100 to feed a child for a year.
I am doing this campaign to raise awareness and funds for the Akshaya Patra Foundation. Funds raised would be used to provide wholesome school lunch to students studying at government schools across Telangana under the Mid-day meal program.
The objectives of the Mid-Day Meal:
- Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I-V in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools, and EGS and AIE centers.
- Encouraging children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities
- Providing nutritional support to children of the primary stage in drought-affected areas during summer vacation
- While focusing on improving the nutritional level and attendance, Akshaya Patra also aims to address two Sustainable Development Goals: Zero Hunger and Quality Education.
A recent UNICEF report states that more than 80 million children drop out before completing 8 years of age and over 8 million children are out of school.
Akshaya Patra is focused on eliminating classroom hunger and attracting more children (enrolment) to schools and ensure to keep them in school (reduce dropout rate) by feeding a filling, nutritious mid-day meal every school day. The Mid-Day meal serves as an incentive for children to get proper education, improve socialisation among children, and empower women through employment opportunities.
HELP ME RAISE INR 22000 AND SUPPORT 20 CHILDREN FOR A YEAR
Pic: The nutritious meal served in school brings a big smile and positive change in the life of the students.
ABOUT ME & THIS CAMPAIGN:
My name is Laya and I am a Grade 10 student at ISH.
School. To us, it seems like a chore. Our parents say, "It's good for your future," and so we go. As is the norm, we think school is boring, the teachers just drone on and on and most of what we learn is useless considering what you want to do. What's the point? But not everyone thinks this wat. To some, school is a refuge. For those children attending government schools, attending school is the only way to get food during the week. Their parents send them to school for that one purpose. Not for education, not for a better future. Just for one, free, warm meal.
I'm sure many people can't imagine that people would only send their children to school for food. But for these children, going to school is the best part of their week. They get a full midday meal and its warm and delicious. These children are so ecstatic about this meal that they wish school went for 7 days. Imagine wishing for that! Not many kids say that these days. But these children do and, amazingly, just the promise of a meal can drive children all over the country to attend school. Just for that promise, they're learning to love school and thus getting an education that can help them improve their financial situation later in the future. The impact this meal has on these children and their futures is incredible.
Through this campaign, I will donate the money I raise here to the NGO Akshaya Patra, which gives these children meals at school. I want to help them gain that love for learning and so positively impact their lives. Help me with my goal and fund my campaign.
CASE STUDY
Lets together impact and change the lives of more students like ADITYA.
THE WORLD'S LARGEST MID-DAY MEAL PROGRAM
AKSHAYA PATRA KITCHEN - QUALITY & HYGIENE
From preparation to delivery of mid-day meals, the Akshaya Patra kitchens operate on a daily basis keeping in mind the two most important elements: hygiene and quality.
A centralised kitchen helps us manage operations from a single point of control; this includes receiving, storage, preparation, delivery, maintenance, among other processes that form the cycle of mid-day meal operations. Currently, Akshaya Patra Foundation operates 41 centralised kitchens in 12 states of India and these kitchens prepare mid-day meals for 17,29,325 school children.
The Akshaya Patra centralised kitchens are equipped with cauldrons, trolleys, rice chutes, dal/sambar tanks, cutting boards, knives and other similar equipment that are sanitised before usage. The semi-automated kitchens have the capacity to undertake large scale feeding, typically up to 100,000 mid-day meals a day and they also adhere to Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) to ensure safe handling, preparation, and delivery of the food.
Using these highly mechanised units, Akshaya Patra is able to achieve the highest levels of hygiene by reducing human contact with the food. After cooking, the food is packed into stainless steel containers and transported via conveyor belts to be loaded into custom made food distribution vehicles, to be taken to the beneficiary schools.
COST SHEET
OUR PARTNER
Since 2000, Akshaya Patra has been concerting all its efforts towards providing fresh and nutritious meals to children on every single school day. We are continuously leveraging technology to multiply our reach. The state-of-the-art kitchens have become a subject of study and have attracted curious visitors from around the world.
LOCATION - MAP
Under this program, government schools around these kitchens would be benefitted. This will impact students studying at government schools in Telangana.
POWER OF A HOT MEAL
TAX BENEFITS
Funding for this campaign is eligible for tax breaks as Akshaya Patra Foundation as an NGO is a registered trust & you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT act. Foreign funding is accepted too.
FEEDBACK/CAMPAIGN UPDATES FOR YOU
To ensure that there is complete transparency I shall get a report from NGO (this takes between 2 to 4 months usually after the funds are raised & transferred to them) telling me who benefitted from the funding. The details will then be posted from Akshaya Patra on the UPDATES section of my campaign. As soon as I post an update, the platform will send an SMS and EMAIL alert to all the funders - i.e. to you. Click on the link on the email and you can read about who benefitted. That's transparent right.
The below image is an example of the FEEDBACK FORMAT that we will be shared with all my funders.
SCHOOLS WHERE WE PLAN TO DISTRIBUTE THE MID-DAY MEAL
The Mid-day meal will be distributed across schools in Telangana. We can provide mid-day meals for more students if we raise more funds. This will help bring more smiles and cheers to students and help us achieve the Foundation’s vision that "No child in India shall be deprived of Education, because of Hunger".
For this campaign, the beneficiary students will be the ones from schools around Kandi, Narsingi, Nawabpet & Warangal.
FAQs
Will we get to know the details of who benefitted?
Yes. After the money has been collected it will be transferred by Fueladream to Akshaya Patra. It will take from 2 to 4 months after that to get details of fund use. Once I get this information from them I shall upload this on the UPDATES section of this campaign. You will then get an alert & can read details about the beneficiaries. ( WHICH SCHOOL AND HOW MANY STUDENTS)
When do I get the receipts?
It takes up to 2 weeks after the campaign is closed for the monies to be transferred to NGO. The receipts will start getting processed about 4 to 6 weeks AFTER the campaign is closed and will be sent to you directly.
How does crowdfunding work?
Crowdfunding in India is a relatively new concept & is growing very quickly.
It’s a concept that allows a large number of funders (like you) to fund an Idea or a cause or event by giving small amounts of money online. Fueladream.com is a crowdfunding platform in India that allows for such pooling of funds. You can fund innovations & ideas on FuelADream and be the first to get these products or make them come true. You can also do a good turn by funding charities and causes through crowdfunding. When you fund a charity it’s more like a donation & you get small innovative rewards like a shout-out on an FB page or a thank you email from the beneficiaries
I thought the mid-day meal scheme is run by the Govt. Why does Akshaya Patra need funding and what do they do?
The NGO Akshaya Patra now manages the mid-day meal scheme in many districts across 13 states in India and currently feeds 1.8 million students a day. They have partnered with the Central and State Governments and now manage and execute this scheme. They get a subsidy from the Govt. and this allows them to deliver high quality and tasty food at a very low cost. The cost of a meal per student for a year is just INR 1100, excluding the subsidies. To deliver 1.8 million meals, they as an NGO need to raise INR 200 CR to sustain the program. And this figure is bound to increase if the number of children to be fed, increases.
Akshaya Patra is unique as they have completely changed the way the mid-day meal scheme is executed with a focus on the following:
1. State of the Art Kitchen - The Akshaya Patra Foundation operates based on a well-crafted module that puts hygiene and quality on top of its priorities. Their highly mechanized kitchens, achieve the highest levels of hygiene by reducing human contact with food. They meticulously, strictly follow the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP Norms) prescribed for the Food industry and strictly comply with the HACCP norms (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points).
2. Thrive to deliver Quality food every time a meal is served - This is achieved by ensuring highly qualified professionals monitor the quality at every stage, right from food ingredients, cooking process/environment and finally cooked food.
3. Nutrition - Akshaya Patra has Food Labs that develop recipes for various menus to ensure the best possible nutrition to the child and also, more importantly, delighting the children with excellent taste irrespective of the region.
4. Sourcing the raw materials - Akshaya Patra leverages its status as a large volume buyer and negotiates much better prices for better quality products and also gets raw materials at a subsidized cost from the Govt.
5. Proven model welcomed by Schools & State Governments - Governments encourage them to open more and more kitchens in their states. This is because they have seen the impact and the benefit of serving these mid-day meals via better health of the students, lesser drop outs from school and increased level of enrolment. Akshaya Patra is looking at expanding their footprint across the country and aim to increase their number of kitchens from 51 currently to 60 by March 2020.
