Changing the Lives of India's Children

Changing the Lives of India's Children

By Akshaya Patra Foundation USA

According to the UN, India shares a quarter of the global hunger burden. Nearly 47 million Indian children, about 29% of the world’s malnourished children, suffer from chronic undernutrition or stunting. In addition, almost 3,000 children die daily, due to malnutrition according to a World Bank Report. A recent UNICEF report states that more than 8.1 million Indian children are out of school. At a national level, 29% of Indian school children drop out before completing five years of primary school, and 43% drop out before finishing upper primary school. Only 42% of students complete high school. This makes India among the top 5 nations for school dropouts for children in primary school, with 1.4 million children, aged 6 to 11, not attending school. Too often, poverty forces children into various types of child labor.

Poverty reduces food security, increases hunger, and thus negatively impacts a child’s ability to learn, despite having access to a quality education. Also, a large majority of foreign aid is geared towards educational programs. However, solely investing in education without addressing the underlying causes of low education rates greatly reduces the efficacy of aid.

This is where Akshaya Patra Foundation USA come in.

About Us

Akshaya Patra means ‘inexhaustible vessel’ in Sanskrit. We drive social impact and do it in innovative ways. We build bridges, foster individual capabilities & empower people while using technologically innovative ways to scale our program. Our vision is ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.'

From our humble beginnings providing 1,500 free meals to underprivileged children in 2000, Akshaya Patra has grown to be the world’s largest secular school lunch program, serving 1.8 million nutritious meals daily to Indian children aged 6-14 years old. Our 60 ISO-standard kitchens make between 10,000 to 250,000 meals in 6 hours and 800+ trucks transport these meals to 19,257 schools, 6 days a week. The Akshaya Patra Foundation works in partnership with the Central Government and various State Governments to implement the program. The government supports us with grain and cash subsidies amounting to 60% of our total cost. The rest is covered by the generous support we receive from corporate, foundation, and individual donors. To date, we have served over 3 billion meals. It cost 20 USD to feed a child for an entire year.

"No Child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger."

Our innovative program design combines technological innovation and government collaboration to create a highly effective, sustainable, scalable and replicable school meal program.

In addition to providing school lunches, the organization provides breakfastto 163,000 children, aged 3-5 years old, in rural-childcare programs and serves students in the largest Urdu-speaking school in Asia. The organization also supports nursing mothers and pregnant women by providing them with nutritious meals so that their children are not born malnourished.

In 2006, the Akshaya Patra Foundation USA (AP USA) was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The foundation is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and supports the Akshaya Patra mission by raising funds and awareness in the United States. We have a strong network of volunteers, chapters, and youth ambassadors across the country that support our necessary and worthwhile cause.

Our Impact

Akshaya Patra directly tackles hunger for the world’s most vulnerable populations, in a country where 40% of all Indian children are undernourished. In a little over a decade, the school meal program has demonstrated a measurable impact in combating malnutrition and promoting education.

"Studies conducted by AC Nielsen showed that, in some schools, 9 out of 10 children only attended because they were being served a meal."

Studies conducted by AC Nielsen showed that, in some schools, 9 out of 10 children only attended because they were being served a meal. Studies also show that the proportion of students’ test scores in the 80th percentile and above, is much higher in schools that participate in the Akshaya Patra program, suggesting that the nutritious meal has had a tremendous impact on the lives of children. 72% of girls participating in our program also report having a normal BMI for their age versus 64%, which represents the proportion of girls in non-participating schools. They are not only attending school at a higher rate but they are also retaining and utilizing information to perform well at school.

Our Holistic Approach

By providing unlimited servings to children and their siblings, the impact of the program extends past the child and into the family home as Akshaya Patra ensures that more family members have access to unlimited, quality meals. Children and teachers are trained on personal hygiene and food safety practices. Decentralized kitchens provide women with a sustainable source of income, thus helping them break the cycle of poverty. Centralized kitchens hire people from neighboring villages, thus providing employment and stability. 30% of Akshaya Patra’s global workforce is female. For example, in the state of Gujarat, 55%-60% of the kitchen staff are women.

To ensure safety, female staff employed in kitchens start work at 10:00 am (after sunrise) and end their shifts at 6:00 pm (before dark). Maternity leave is also provided. Skills development and training sessions are provided regularly for kitchen staff and a nutritious meal is also provided, daily, for all kitchen staff. Staff are trained on quality & safety measures, Six Sigma, Kaizen, 9S, GMP, GHP, and ERP to improve the efficiency & effectiveness of the Midday meal program.

COVID Relief

The Akshaya Patra Foundation was at the forefront of providing COVID relief in India and we developed several programs in response to the ever-changing environment in India. We coordinated with local governments and adapted our current model of delivery to ensure that food reached the most underserved sections of society.

Since March 2020, we have distributed over 216 million meals across India. We also provided education kits for children in rural areas who were unable to obtain an education; provided nutritional kits geared towards pregnant & nursing women and held vaccination drives while dispelling widely-held myths surrounding COVID vaccines in rural communities.