Akshaya Patra reaches a new milestone!

 

Experience the Joy of Giving this Daan Utsav

Atithi Devo Bhava is a practice in Indian society where a guest is treated with the utmost respect. The hosts provide them with the best experience while they spend time with each other, by offering them food, clothes, etc. It is a form of social service that has existed since ancient times. Giving is considered to be auspicious and people are also aware of the bliss that comes with being helpful to others’ needs.

To continue the age-old tradition of giving to the underprivileged or people who need some form of help, Daan Utsav is observed from 2-8 October every year. This week has been celebrated since the time it was first started in 2009 and was called the Joy of Giving week. It is a perfect time to fill someone’s life with loads of happiness and get content in return for doing good for the underprivileged. It is a week of enthusiasm where people from all walks of life come together for a single cause – GIVING.

Daan Utsav is celebrated in many places across India like Bhuj, Sancoale, Aluva, Mysuru, Imphal, Jammu and Sukma. 

What Daan Utsav for different people

Individuals, corporates, the Government, non-profit organisations, institutions, volunteers, communities and the general public. To raise awareness about this week, celebrities also join hands with one or the other NGO in India and take out time to play, dance and sing with people from challenging backgrounds during press releases, inaugurations, book launches, school annual functions, association parties, etc.

No matter who it is, life is all about giving and even domestic workers, street vendors and washerwomen give when they have or receive. Nobody wants to get left behind, everyone wants to receive the endless joy of giving. So is the case with school children too. Donation campaigns are conducted in schools where they bring old books, stationeries, etc.

There is no better time to turn your kindness into actions of donating resources, money, time, food or time or skills to the have-nots, than this festival of philanthropy!

Donate to NGOs on Daan Utsav

During Daan Utsav, NGOs conduct collection camps, on various events that:

• organise therapies for children with special needs
• train youth to get skill-based jobs
• raise funds to train unemployed people
• feed the hungry and malnourished people
• bring various opportunities in all fields to marginalised communities.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a trusted NGO in India that has been serving nutritious meals to school children coming from low-income sections for the last 21 years. What started off with a kitchen that fed 1,500 children in Bengaluru, is now 65 kitchens strong that feeds close to 2 million children every day. Apart from its flagship programme that will feed the hungry school children in Government schools, it also takes care of the nutrition of pregnant and lactating mothers as nutrition is of utmost importance during the early years of child development.

Apart from running the Anganwadi Programme, the Foundation runs other programmes that you can support this Daan Utsav.

PM Poshan Abhiyaan

To eliminate classroom hunger, help children focus and cater to their nutritional requirements, Akshaya Patra implements the school feeding programme under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN Abhiyaan, formerly known as the Mid-Day Meal Programme).

 Anganwadi Feeding Programme

Akshaya Patra provides adequate nutrition to nursing and would-be mothers so that they and their children are well nourished right during the early days of life. Under this programme, children under the age group of 6 years get daily nourishment in the form of meals.

Homeless Mothers Feeding Programme

Homeless mothers are wives or mothers who have lost their husbands and are not living with their families; they are either abandoned by their first circle or by their children and do not have a place to live. Akshaya Patra’s Homeless Mothers Feeding Programme provides meals to these women who are trying to make ends meet. The programme is currently active in Vrindavan.

Breakfast Programme

The Indian Medical Association and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics have advocated for a free breakfast programme where students will be provided with a healthy breakfast each school day. Akshaya Patra’s pilot Breakfast Programme was initiated in Hosur, Tamil Nadu in 2017. The breakfast offered in school acts as an incentive for children to enrol and attend regularly.

Your contribution matters

Become a part of Akshaya Patra’s donor family by choosing to support a programme of your choice. Donate online to make a difference in the lives of people in need.

This Daan Utsav, pull someone out of distress.
Set an example with your generosity.
Lift the lives of underprivileged people.

Importance of nutrition for children

 

Effects of hunger on children. Beat it by donating to charities

 

When you think of hunger, your mind immediately paints a black and white picture of a child probably in tattered clothes scurrying for food here and there.

Sadly, this is true and very uncomfortable.

India is home to 33 lakh undernourished children, out of which 17.7 lakh of them are severely malnourished.

For most of us, hunger is only about skipping a meal. But, in reality, hunger is much more than a missed meal and grumbling stomach.

Hunger is a vicious cycle that only makes room for hungrier children and it is unending. 

What happens when a child is hungry for a long term?

If a child is hungry, depending on the stage of hunger, h/she is categorised as suffering from:

• ·         Acute hunger
• ·         Chronic hunger
• ·         Hidden hunger

Acute hunger is when a child is undernourished for a definable time, for example, during wars and disasters. Chronic hunger is a form of hunger that is associated with poverty where they lack sufficient funds for healthy food. Hidden hunger is a form of hunger that results from an unbalanced diet where initially, the symptoms are not identifiable but in the long-term lead to nutritional deficiencies and illnesses.

Apart from these physical deficiencies and illnesses, children who stay hungry for a long time suffer from mental incapability like forgetfulness, decreased attention span and inability to remember long term memories, resulting in decreased academic scores. 

Make charity donations to defeat hunger in children

NGOs target the grass root levels to eradicate all forms of hunger - acute, chronic and hidden. Some of them even go back to nourishing the mother who carries children – pregnant, nursing and new mothers.

Donating to these NGOs to nourish mothers and their children also makes you eligible to gain tax deductions. 

Your tax deductible donations are either eligible for 50% or 100% tax exemption depending on the registration of the non-profit organisation.

Every charity wants to be the best NGO to donate to because the cause they fight for is so genuine. Also, the impact that donors’ contribution has on the beneficiaries is truly appreciable. Here is a story of a young school child who has beaten the ill effects of malnourishment.

Sachin, a Class 6 student at Hanspal Primary School, dreams of becoming a pilot. He suffered from malnutrition and stunting during his initial days of school. He was never able to focus in class and was weak and lifeless. But after getting regular meals at school, he blossomed into an attentive student who performed well and is a favourite of all the teachers.

Beating all the forms of hunger, he says his school lunch has changed him inside out. Adding to it, he says he prefers school meals to the food he gets to eat at home.

Sachin is a mid-day meal beneficiary of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in India that serves nutritious meals every day. It has the distinction of being the world's largest NGO-run school lunch programme, serving freshly cooked nutritious meals to over 1.8 million children in 19,039 schools in 14 states and 2 union territories.

Make charity donations to this organisation to end classroom hunger in children studying in Government and Government-aided schools. Your tax deductible donations support food and education of children whose parents cannot afford one square meal a day. Help many more children like Sachin, to break the unending cycle of hunger by feeding them with Akshaya Patra.

This September, Stand Against Hunger

 

We are lucky!
We get to choose what we want to eat and when.
But, for individuals coming from families where being hungry and not getting food is a norm, they must decide whether they can afford to eat or not.
For such people, it is a tough choice to make between, food, electricity, water, medicine, education and other needs.

“Nobody should be forced to make a choice to go hungry,”

                     -  Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America

The whole month of September is celebrated as Hunger Action Month, where people across the world come together to support a movement to end hunger in all forms. With public and Government support, we can achieve unachievable tasks like helping these disadvantaged communities achieve long-term security so that they don’t have to choose between food and other things.

Feed to defeat hunger and all its forms

Over 828 million people suffer from various forms of hunger. Food is a human right, but, does every individual have the access to good food? The answer is NO! They suffer from hunger in either of the levels detailed below:

Acute Hunger

Acute hunger is a condition when a person is undernourished over a definable. This is an extreme form of hunger that arises during crises like the pandemic, wars, disasters, etc. This form of hunger generally affects people who already suffer from chronic hunger.

 

Chronic Hunger

Chronic hunger is a state of long-term undernourishment. This form of hunger is generally associated with a lack of sufficient funds for healthy and clean food along with water and/or healthcare. This form of hunger is not condition-specific but is the most widespread form of hunger across the globe as it is linked with poverty.

 

Hidden Hunger

Hidden hunger is a form of chronic hunger that is a result of an unbalanced diet, where important nutrients like zinc, iron, iodine and vitamins are not present in the food consumed. Initially, these findings are not visible at first glance, however, over a long period, these nutrient deficiencies lead to long-term illnesses.

This Hunger Action Month, feed the needy people with an NGO in India that takes care of all the nutritional requirements of an individual, be it an infant, toddler, teenager or adult.

Hunger and Poverty – A vicious circle

Feed underprivileged people, so that they know the importance of food, get educated in order to earn and fend for themselves and their families so that they can get good and healthy food to eat. It is an unending circle that can be broken only by wholesome meals.

Feed to defeat hunger with Akshaya Patra

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that has dedicated itself to feeding wholesome meals to school children coming from underprivileged backgrounds and studying in Government and Government-aided schools of India. By working in partnership with various Governments, District Authorities, volunteers and its donor family, the organisation has been actively involved in various feeding initiatives since 2000.

During this Hunger Action Month, Akshaya Patra has taken to feeding mid-day meal beneficiaries under the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan, homeless mothers, people living in night shelters, expecting and nursing mothers and disaster-struck victims who are affected by floods, earthquakes, pandemics, etc.

Donate online to show your humanitarian side with your generosity to feed people.
This September, let’s make food accessible to everyone. Together, we can make Zero Hunger possible by feeding to eliminate all forms of hunger.

NGOs – A critical link for social change

 

Drive around the city and you may see people living completely different lives on the roadside—people with no qualms in tattered clothes, tents with holes, discoloured hair and undernourished bodies. 

The Government frequently releases schemes and programmes for their welfare. The problem lies in their reach into remote areas and their ground-level execution.

Ever wondered what created the gap in the first place? 
Do they not deserve access to resources just because they are born into low-income families?
Is there anyone listening to their calls for help?

Let's look at the phenomenon of globalisation and the idea of development to answer these questions.  

Industrialisation, Urbanisation and Globalisation

The 19th century saw tremendous advances in transportation and communication. The resulting Industrial Revolution eased trade across borders. Businesses reached new heights by expanding their supply chains internationally. It allowed them to amass incredible amounts of wealth and strengthen the economic positions of their countries.

Eventually, corporations and the better-off sections of the population went further up the economic ladder while the marginalised were exploited for labour. Subsequently, they lost access to basic rights and resources, thus widening the gap between the wealthy and the disadvantaged even further.

With such fast-paced industrial progress, even our natural environment began suffering, resulting in the mass destruction of both, flora and fauna. Pollution and depletion of resources questioned the future of upcoming generations and the misuse of capital by a small privileged section of humanity.

The Dawn of Realisation

Around the late 20th century, a conscious of equality for all grew. The idea of development gradually changed from urbanisation and exploitation to sustainable development. People started caring not only for all of humanity but also for the wildlife we took for granted till now. The focus diverted to working for environmental protection and guarding the rights of those who remained suppressed for decades. 

Subsequently, NGOs sprung up to accomplish the global aims of “ending poverty, protecting the planet and improving the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.”

NGOs – Heroes of the Modern World

Non-Government Organisations or NGOs are voluntary citizen groups that emerged around 40 years ago. Ever since, they have been crucial to 

• advocate welfare and humanitarian assistance
• create awareness about ongoing problems and change the outlook of society
• check on activities of the Government and private entities 
• research, plan, mobilise people and work with local authorities for the execution of welfare schemes at the grassroots level
• collaborate at local, national and international levels

One of the most notable characteristics of NGOs is acting consistently for long-term results. That is why there are many established NGOs in India that the Government recognises as its implementing partners today.

Corporate Social Responsibility

In April 2014, India became the first country to make Corporate Social Responsibility mandatory. Hence, the growing need for businesses to undertake CSR initiatives further boosted NGO activities in the country. They either sent employee groups to volunteer at NGOs in India or donate a portion of their profits to fund welfare programmes. In any case, this significantly boosted people’s participation in social change.

Tax Exemption

The Central Governments made provisions for people to motivate them to donate. For instance, a section under the Income Tax Act provided a percentage of tax exemption if citizens donated to organisations qualifying under the act. In India, you can avail 50% or 100% tax exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act by donating to a charitable organisation. 

Technology and NGOs

NGOs today are not what you may imagine as dull spaces with activists shouting slogans. They are well-versed with the latest technology and their use for the causes they support.

For instance, NGOs like Akshaya Patra, have been using hi-tech cooking mechanisms for 21 years to produce fresh meals for children while avoiding human touch. For the Akshaya Patra initiatives, they not only ensure hygiene while cooking but also produce huge amounts of fresh food for children.

Moreover, the kitchens adhere to Food Safety Management Systems which include sterilising all the cooking equipment with steam before preparing meals. They use food-safe SS 304 Grade vessels, conduct frequent training with the cooks and supervisors to ensure food hygiene, undertake pest control measures and check 'Critical Control Points' like cooking temperature etc.

Donate to NGOs

Since NGOs do not work for profit, they depend on backing from the Government and donors. One can contribute through online donations, fundraising campaigns or even volunteer with them online or offline.

This is true with Akshaya Patra as well. They started by serving fresh, nutritious and hygienic mid-day meals to children of Government schools. But today, years of consistent support from the Government of India and their donor family, they started other programmes for underprivileged people such as Anganwadi Feeding, Disaster Relief feeding, Homeless Mothers Feeding and so on.

Now you can also be a part of their change-maker community. Donate online individually or start a campaign for any of the Akshaya Patra initiatives. When you support their flagship programme PM POSHAN Abhiyaan with a contribution of INR 1500, you will nourish a child for an entire academic year.

Donate to feed the children from low-income and marginalised backgrounds
 for a healthy future of the nation.

Importance of Akshaya Patra's Nutritious Food for Children

Most of the kids these days are generally hooked up on junk food.

As a result of which, children land up eating smaller portions of nutritious food.

Peer pressure, TV commercials, roadside eateries and fried food create battles between parents and their children.

Importance of nutrition in children

Ensuring that children eat a well-balanced diet is crucial for their growth and development. Children constantly grow at a rapid rate outgrowing their clothes. What fits them today may not fit in the next 1 month or so. So be prepared to keep investing in good food and some clothes.

Nutrition can also help in establishing a strong foundation for healthy eating habits. These habits inculcated at a very young age will most likely be carried on to the adulthood stage too. This means that if you teach your child to eat carrots over finger chips, this habit may last throughout their lifetime.

Eating nutritious food also has another long-term effect on children. It helps in building immunity and resistance to nutrition-related diseases that can kick in early in the adulthood stages of life. For example, eating fried food frequently results in high cholesterol levels during early adulthood leading to further complications.

Understanding the importance of healthy meals at a very young age, it was necessary to make healthy meals accessible to children of all walks of life. For children who are privileged, healthy meals are easily accessible.

But, what about children who come from challenging backgrounds?

Can they afford healthy meals?

Meals are a huge ask in itself, healthy meals are beyond their affordability.

Then what is their next possible solution?

For most parents, sending children to Government schools means free food for children in school. These meals become the reason why parents don’t mind sending their children to school rather than pushing them to work as a helping hand to their family’s financial situation.

To encourage more parents to send their children to school, the Government of India made provisions under the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan to serve nutritious mid-day meals to children.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that implements the world’s largest school feeding programme.

Akshaya Patra is spread across 65 locations and caters to every day nutritional requirements of 1.8 million beneficiaries with mid-day meals. It caters to the local palates of children spread across 14 states and 2 union territories.

By providing unlimited food for education of children, this NGO in India supports the health and nutrition of children.

Children who initially do not value education, start coming to school to get education and realise the importance of studying and achieving. When they become regular at school, they feel that they too play an important in society.

Make an online donation to give wings to children, to make them realise that their dreams can come true too.

Mid-Day Meals Play a crucial role in Academics

 

NGO's Role in Solving Hunger in India

 

PM Narendra Modi Inaugurates Akshaya Patra’s 62nd kitchen in Varanasi

 

Food is a basic essential for the development of children.
Food and education always go hand in hand.
When a child is well fed and educated, s/he becomes able to pave his future.

Government’s intervention to feed children

NITI Aayog has identified certain districts of India with a high level of malnutrition. To support children in these areas and all over the nation, the Government of India started the PM Poshan Abhiyaan which was earlier known as the Mid-Day Meal Programme.

It was mandated in 2001 that every child studying in Government, Government-aided schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres receive school meals as a part of this programme. The name of this Mid-Day Meal Scheme was changed to Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Scheme (PM POSHAN Abhiyaan) in September 2021. This programme has shown positive effects. 

Parents who were not able to afford sending their child/ren to schools due to their financial constraints eagerly sent their children for the free nutritious food being supplied. 

Benefits of mid-day meals

• ·         Nourishes children
• ·         Improves immunity
• ·         Makes children regular to school
• ·         Helps them focus
• ·         Improves memory and retention rate

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that is the implementer of the PM POSHAN scheme (formerly known as the Mid-Day Meal Programme) that benefits 1.8 million children studying in Government and Government-aided schools in 14 states and 2 union territories of India. With its decentralised and centralised kitchens spread across 63 locations, this NGO in India caters to the nutritional needs of children. 

Akshaya Patra works under a Public Private Partnership model and has been running the school lunch programme for the last 21 years with strong support from the Government, donors and corporate partners. 

Akshaya Patra inaugurates 62^nd kitchen

On 7 July 2022, the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s new kitchen in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. This is the fifth centralised kitchen in the state after Lucknow, Vrindavan, Gorakhpur and Mant. 

Honourable Governor, Smt Anandiben Patel and Honourable Chief Minister, Shri Yogi Adityanath accompanied the Prime Minister. This kitchen was supported by Westbridge Capital. The event was presided by Shri Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman – Akshaya Patra, and Shri Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice-Chairman. 

This event was followed by a visit to the newest kitchen. The Prime Minister, Chief Minister and Governor along with other dignitaries were given a tour of the Akshaya Patra kitchen. 

Details of the Akshaya Patra Kitchen in Varanasi

• ·         Spread over an area of 3 acres
• ·         Capacity to feed 1,00,000 children
• ·         High standards of hygiene, food safety and quality
• ·         Roti machine makes 40,000 rotis/hour
• ·         700-litre capacity rice cauldron with hydraulic system
• ·         1,200-litre capacity dal cauldron with automatic motors
• ·         Reverse Osmosis plant for water purification
• ·         Solar panels for electricity production
• ·         Heat pump and solar water heater to boil water

Once all the dignitaries visited the kitchen facility, the Honourable Prime Minister gathered with children who showcased their talents by singing, dancing, reciting shlokas, performing yoga asanas, etc.

Assam flood relief works help rebuild lives

Since the lashing of rains and overflowing of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries, Assam suffered day after day and it seemed never-ending.

It always starts as the rivers start gushing down carrying the silt as a result of the melting glaciers. Added to the heavy monsoons and the melting glaciers, the river volumes enhance and pick up intensity downstream, resulting in floods.

This is the case every year.

However, it is said that Assam is facing the worst-flood scenario in the last decade.

With hundreds of deaths and lakhs of affected people, the situation seems grimmer by the day. Thousands of them have become homeless and are staying in relief camps battling hunger, shortage of essential supplies and recurring landslides.

Indians from all walks of life have come forward to lend their support to the flood victims.

I was devastated seeing the water levels when we were on the way to provide food as a part of the Assam flood relief works. I freaked out when I realised that almost half of the tractor wheels were submerged; it was like we were floating. We were all geared to brace for the rain and floods, but the local people were not equipped.

Men braved through the waters even though it was waist-deep.

So many questions popped into my mind.

What if they slip and fall?
How and where will they sleep?
Where will they stay?
How will they fight water-borne diseases?
How will they recover from their losses?
How will they remark their land?
If their house is submerged, what about their means of food?...

I had to stop my mind from thinking further.

As I got off the tractor, I figured that ours was not the only NGO in India who has arrived for support, there were so many others.

As one positive aspect, I was happy to see that there are so many generous people who donate to feed the needy during times of disaster. When we have each other, we can face and battle any disaster.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that provides food assistance to flood victims. I am glad I was able to reach out to people in distress by being associated with this Foundation. With the generosity of many individuals, corporate donors and partnerships with various Governments, we were able to serve freshly cooked meals to these victims.

What we provided as meals

In these flood-affected areas of Kamrup district (Rukminigaon and Hatigaon areas), we served any one of the following options:

• Rice, dal & subzi
• Vegetable pulav & subzi
•  Plain/ vegetable khichdi

Today’s scenario

As the water levels have started to recede, flood victims have started to rebuild their lives and homes. They have been trying to cope with their lives and food should be the last thing on their mind.

Along with other organisations that provide relief materials, Akshaya Patra has been distributing Flood Relief Kits to help flood victims sustain the harsh situations. Donate to feed the needy people with your contribution to provide kits that contain:

Rice, Wheat Flour, Toor Dal, Desi Chana, Peanuts, Oil, Spices, Sugar, Salt, Biscuits, Sanitary Pads, Notebooks

 

Assam needs us!

All our support can help each and every one of them to be a survivor.

Be a food warrior to a flood warrior!

Donate online towards the Assam flood relief works to give food assistance to all the people in need. 

Akshaya Patra reach 2022

 

3 predictors of child malnutrition in India

Child malnutrition is a chronic problem - a difficult malaise to tackle. Substantial progress has been made in child mortality rate; it has reduced from 5.2% in 2012 to 3.4% in 2021. (Global Hunger Index 2021)

However, the causes of death for children under five remain pre-term birth complications, trauma, birth asphyxia, and infectious diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. Tackling child malnourishment requires a multi-faceted approach which includes improving the quality and quantity of dietary intake, maternal health and education, etc.

The Government of India initiated programmes like the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) that nourish pregnant and lactating mothers and their children below the age of six and midday meals (MDM) to school-going children. Many NGOs in India have also implemented these schemes to ensure that children do not sleep on an empty stomach.

Factors that could predict malnutrition of children

Child malnutrition is divided into undernutrition (insufficient calorie consumption) and overnutrition (excess consumption of calories).

Lack of the right nutrients and macronutrients in a child results in the prevalence of undernourishment in children which could lead to underweightedness, stunting and wasting.

• ·         Poor quality diet
• ·         Poor maternal health
• ·         Socio-economic status 

1.   1) Malnutrition due to poor quality diet

A child of any age can suffer from malnutrition, specifically, young children are more prone. According to the World Health Organisation, malnutrition is the underlying cause of approximately 3.1 million children’s deaths each year.

In India, a child who comes from an average underprivileged household does not get the adequate nutrients in the form of food as their food does not comprise vegetables, lentils and legumes. Including these in the diet gives the right amount of proteins required for children to stay active.

Rising prices of vegetables and other essentials leave no option for parents coming from marginalised sections of society to feed their children with what is cheaply available. NGOs support the children of such parents who run the PM-POSHAN programme (earlier known as the MDM scheme).

2.  2) Malnutrition due to poor maternal health

The Government has made excessive promotions to make people aware that breastfeeding for the first six months is beneficial to a baby. And these benefits extend into adulthood as well.

It goes without saying that a malnourished mother will not be able to pass on the required nutrition to her child in the form of milk. And ultimately, this child will become malnourished and have many deficiencies and complications in the long run.

It is crucial that a woman should be nourished well during all the stages of her pregnancy. A child develops organs right from the mother’s womb. What this means is that the cognitive and physical growth of a child takes place even before it opens its eyes in this world.

3.  3) Malnutrition due to socioeconomic status

A malnourished child grows up to become an undernourished adult who cannot perform to give the best. Not performing the best in a work environment gives less salary which does not give access to good food. This further means that undernourished adults give birth to malnourished children and the cycle continues without a pause.

            Hunger and poverty are vicious cycles - endless

It is very difficult to put an end to this cycle unless a member of the family starts earning better to provide good and wholesome meals. Chronic or long-term malnourishment is concentrated in sections of society coming from challenging socio-economic backgrounds.

Nourishing children right from age zero

Supporting the Government’s initiatives to nourish children at every stage of life, The Akshaya Patra Foundation – an NGO in India provides nutritious meals. These meals are prepared by giving the topmost priorities to safety and hygiene. It is recognised for running the world’s largest NGO-run school meal programme and it has been serving locally palatable meals since 2000.

Akshaya Patra is spread across 61 locations feeding 1.8 million children across 14 states & 2 union territories.

Donate to feed the children who need your support. By serving midday meals for 1 full school year with your donation of ₹1500, you are giving them a reason to come back to school every day. Not only that, by helping them come to school daily, you also help them get educated. By getting educated, you are supporting the next set of leaders and achievers to meet their goals.

Make an online donation to support the dreams of a million children.