Light the Lives of Children this Diwali

 

Happy Diwali from The Akshaya Patra Foundation! As a part of your festivities, contribute to feed underprivileged children with breakfast and lunch in their schools. Support their health & education so that they overcome the evil of hunger & illiteracy.

Celebrate Dhanteras with a tinge of goodness

 

Dhanteras is a much-awaited festival for Hindus in India as it is called the day of wealth. The word ‘Dhan’ means wealth and ‘Teras’ means the thirteenth day of the Hindu moon cycle. This auspicious day falls on the thirteenth day in the month of ‘Karthika maasa’ on the day of Karthika Krishna Paksha as per the Hindu calendar. This day marks the beginning of the five-day-long festival of Diwali or Deepavali.

Dhanteras or Dhantrayodashi is believed to be the day Goddess Lakshmi emerged as a result of the churning of the ocean (Samudra Manthan). On this day, people pray to the Goddess for a long life filled with wealth, health and prosperity of their whole family. It is a general ritual of buying new things and purchasing valuables suggesting that the Goddess has entered the home herself.

Significance of Dhanteras

Several stories revolve around why Dhanteras is celebrated and what the significance is in different parts of the country. One popular one is that of Dhantrayodashi. Apart from this, there is a story of celebrating Yama Trayodashi. According to a legend, King Hima’s son who was 16 years old, was predicted of dying from a snake bite after four days of his wedding. The prince’s wife did not let him sleep on the third night, lit lamps and laid out all the jewels, gold coins, etc. outside her husband’s sleep chamber. The young princess kept him awake by singing songs and narrating stories. That night, when Lord Yama came in the form of a snake, the light from the jewels and the lamps blinded him. He wasn’t able to enter the chamber, hence sat on the pile of coins and listened to the stories and songs. And, the next morning, he went away without taking Hima’s son. 

According to Bhagavatha Purana, Lord Dhanvatari – the originator of Ayurveda appeared with Amrit – the elixir of life, during the churning of the ocean, on this very day.

This day holds more significance as a day where new replaces old.

Similarly, we should clear our minds of all the negativity and fill ourselves with good thoughts and kindness to either donate to feed the children who are hungry or to take care of homeless people. Thousands of people and little children stay hungry trying to make ends meet. For them, every single day is a day of struggle between food and other necessities.  

To support such parents who struggle to feed and educate their children, NGOs sponsor their meals and education with the help of online donations or in-kind donations from their supporters. These non-profit organisations implement various programmes that are a part of the Government’s beneficial schemes like the Mid-DayMeal Scheme under the PM Poshan Abhiyaan for children and the Anganwadi scheme for pregnant and lactating mothers under the Integrated Child Development Services. 

One such not-for-profit organisation is The Akshaya Patra Foundation which works on a Public-Private-Partnership model to provide mid-day meals to school-going children under the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan. With various individual donors, corporate partners who donate to feed the children and strong support from various Governments, the NGO cooks and serves locally palatable meals to eliminate classroom hunger.

Akshaya Patra is a 21-year-old NGO that feeds meals to 20,10,516 children in 22,367 schools across 65 locations in 14 states & 2 union territories of India. 

What can you achieve by supporting Akshaya Patra?

By contributing to Akshaya Patra to provide nutritious meals to children studying in Government and Government-aided schools, you support in:

• ·         Nourishing children and taking care of their nutritional status
• ·         Giving children a chance to get educated by giving them a reason to come to school
• ·         Helping children concentrate in class so that they improve their scores
• ·         Reducing the chances of school dropout rates
• ·         Giving children the hope that they too can dream to achieve something they thought they could never achieve.

Can you imagine the smiles on their faces when they get these meals and also get an opportunity to achieve more in life? It is priceless!

So this Dhanteras, make way for new thoughts. Wish the best for children by giving them a future filled with health and dreams.

May you and your family be blessed with abundance!

Happy Dhanteras!

Akshaya Patra reaches a new milestone!

 

Five benefits of contributing to an NGO

 

Reducing Child Malnutrition with healthy meals

Malnourishment is a silent killer that does not spare even the lives of little children. It is one of the major causes of death of children under the age of five.

Malnutrition is the cause of death of close to half the children in Asia and Africa below five years.

Insufficient nutrition increases susceptibility to various infections and leads to delayed recovery. Three important factors that estimate malnourishment are stunting (low height with respect to age), wasting (low weight for height) and underweight (low weight for age).

Malnourishment in childhood reduces the quality of adulthood

The first 1000 days of a child’s life decide if the child is more likely to be healthy or suffer from malnutrition. This means to say that, poor nutrition of a mother during her pregnancy could lead to a stunted childhood. These stunted children tend to be shorter and weaker. They often have impaired mental development and also tend to perform low in school making them more likely to take up low-payment jobs. Hence, they are unable to provide for their children.

Thus it is imperative to work towards nourishing the present generation of children so that they can contribute directly to the health of the next one. 

According to the World Bank, close to 1/3^rd of stunted children (below 5 years), live in India.

PM POSHAN Abhiyaan (earlier known as the MidDay Meal Scheme) is one intervention that could reduce these numbers drastically.

           

Let us take the example of person ‘X’ from a low-income family. He is a daily-wage worker whose salary or savings is not enough to take care of his wife and children. To become a helping hand to the family’s financial situation, he sends his child to work so that he can get some more money for the family’s food. He does not give a choice to his child to choose.

 

Now, let’s think of another situation where ‘Y’ is a daily-wage worker who is struggling to make ends meet to feed his family of three (along with his wife and child). They are aware of the Government’s MDM scheme and send their child to a nearby Government school with the thought that at least the child will be able to enjoy one proper, wholesome meal once a day. By doing so, they are playing a major role in the child’s education too. These school meals become a reason for the child to attend school without missing even a single day.

 

This is the power of school meals.

Midday meals (MDM) served as a part of this programme not only give an incentive for parents to send their children to school but also become a reason for children to get educated for the long term.

Providing nutrition; food for children

Mid-day meals become a source of nutrition in children. They help in their physical and cognitive development. How?

Here’s how:

•         School meals take care of all the essential nutritional requirements of a child. It helps the child develop in a healthy manner. These meals provided as a part of the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan, take care of carbohydrates, essential fats, proteins, fortified salt, etc.
•         Meals nourish children inside-out, providing them with the right energy to expend it by participating in various sports and co-curricular activities. A well-nourished child can play well when compared to a malnourished child.
•         It reduces risk the of diseases providing good immunity. Meals prevent diseases like anaemia, partial blindness and give them the strength to fight common diseases like cold, flu, etc.
•         Free school meals give them access to education. When children start coming to school on a regular basis, they also get tuned to receiving education on a daily basis.

NGOs play a major role in the implementation the of provision of mid-day meals. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one such organisation that helps children from low-income sections gain the above benefits. It has been serving school meals since 2000 and has grown from feeding 1,500 children to close to 2 million children every day.

Donate online to such NGOs that play an important role to nourish children. You never know how your help could transform the lives of either children or their families or a community on the whole.

Extend your support in whichever way possible. Because no support is small help, it has the potential to change lives.

A Story of Transformation | Geetha L Olekar

 

This film is a glimpse into the life of Geetha L Olekar, an associate implementation engineer working at Q2 Software. Geetha was a beneficiary of the mid-day meal programme, implemented by The Akshaya Patra Foundation, during her school days. She also received scholarships facilitated by Akshaya Patra. The scholarships helped Geetha complete her higher studies. 

Know more: https://bit.ly/3BGQIkg

Back To School - Power of Hot Meals | Akshaya Patra Foundation

Eighth standard student of GMPS Unkal, Karnataka, Sinchana S, is extremely happy to be back to school after months. While at home, she missed her friends, teachers, the hot lunch, games and fun. “I am happy that I can come back to school. I can now enjoy with my friends, study and eat well. I don’t like eating vegetables at home but the vegetables that we get in school for lunch is very tasty and I eat them without any fuss,” she says.

Know more : https://www.akshayapatra.org/video-gallery/back-to-school-power-of-hot-meals

Celebrate International Day of Charity with Akshaya Patra

 

The Akshaya Patra Foundation launched its 63rd, 64th & 65th kitchens in 2022

 

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.

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.

5 components of a Mid Day Meal

 

Mid-Day Meals – A nutritious promise