The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit organisation feeding millions of

underserved children in India. We are committed to eradicating two crucial issues -

hunger and malnutrition in India - by implementing the PM Poshan Abhiyaan (formerly
known as the Mid-Day Meal Programme). Carrying out the world’s largest NGO-run
feeding programme, Akshaya Patra aims to not only fight hunger with nutritious
meals but also bring children to school.

In the western Indian state of Rajasthan, we have ten kitchens which currently feed
2,31,187 children in 4,428 schools.

History of The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Looking out of a window one day in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta, His Divine
Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, saw a group of children fighting with
stray dogs over scraps of food. From this simple, yet heart-breaking incident, was
born a determination that no child within a radius of ten miles from our centre
should go hungry.

His inspiring resolve has helped us in making The Akshaya Patra Foundation, as what
it is today.

In June 2000, The Akshaya Patra Foundation started the mid-day meal programme in
Bengaluru, Karnataka. The initial days of implementation were not smooth sailing
for the organisation. But soon came the helping hands of Mohandas Pai, who took the
initiative of donating the first vehicle to transport food to the schools; and
Abhay Jain, who promised to bring in more donors to contribute for the further
expansion of the programme.

The humble beginnings of the Foundation started with serving of the mid-day meals
to 1500 children across five Government schools in Bengaluru.

The programme embraced the vision that –

“No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.”

Today, through the partnership with the Government of India and various State
Governments, as well as philanthropic donors; the organisation runs the world’s
largest mid-day meal programme. Built on a public-private partnership, Akshaya
Patra combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to
deliver a nutritious and hygienic school lunch.

KITCHENS

Our Kitchens
The Akshaya Patra Foundation operates in 33 kitchens across 12 States in India.

Centralised kitchens are large kitchen units that have the capacity to typically
cook up to 100,000 meals. These kitchens serve a set of schools located around the
unit. They are automated and thus ensure hygiene during the cooking processes. On
the other hand, in locations where factors like difficult geographical terrain and
improper road connectivity do not support the construction of large infrastructure,
the decentralised kitchen format is the ideal solution. These kitchens are run by
the women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) under the guidance and supervision of Akshaya
Patra’s kitchen process and operations module.

Akshaya Patra Kitchens have adopted Six Sigma Methodologies

Cooking in the centralised units begins in the early morning. All kitchens run by
the organisation follow a scheduled menu. All the 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 North Indian kitchens
are equipped with rice cauldrons and dal cauldrons. Each rice cauldron has a
capacity of at least 500 litres; and each dal cauldron has the capacity to cook
1200 litres to 3000 litres of dal. As roti is an integral part of the North Indian
menu, the kitchens are equipped with roti making machines, which have the capacity
to roll out up to 200,000 rotis from 6000 kgs of wheat flour.

The South Indian kitchens are equipped with rice cauldrons and sambar cauldrons.
Each rice cauldron has a capacity of at least 500 litres; each sambar cauldron has
the capacity to cook 1200 litres to 3000 litres of sambar. All the vessels are of
stainless steel 304 food grade material.

Quality Assurance during procurement of raw materials

The SQMS process covers subprocesses like Supplier Selection, Supplier

Qualification, Supplier Rating etc. to ensure that the right and best raw materials
are procured. Our Quality Control process ensures that raw materials are accepted
only after thorough Quality Inspection in order to meet all the requirements of our
Raw Material Specifications, which is generally taken and adapted from Food Safety
Standards Act 2006 (FSSA).

Storage, Handling, Preservation of raw materials

Fresh vegetables are procured on a daily basis. After procurement, sorting of

vegetables is done to retain the best quality. All the vegetables are cleaned with
potable water and sanitised before the cutting process. Cold storage is used to
store ready-to-cook cut vegetables to retain freshness. Rice is supplied by the
Food Corporation of India (FCI). Before the cooking process, the rice is machine-
cleaned and washed thoroughly. In order to ensure all the raw materials are fresh,
all the kitchens follow the FIFO (First In First Out)and FEFO (First Expiry First
Out) methods while issuing the raw material for production.

By doing so, the kitchens are able to properly identify, store and retrieve the raw
materials in an appropriate manner.

Quality and Safety during cooking

All the kitchens of Akshaya Patra follow a standard process for preparing the mid-
day meals. This process is charted out to ensure hygiene and quality of the cooked
meal and also to adhere to the food safety standards. All the cooking equipment
like cauldrons, trolleys, rice chutes and sambar/dal tanks, cutting boards, knives
etc. are sterilised using steam before the cooking process begins. The vessels used
in the kitchens are made of stainless steel of 304 grade and is best for cooking
and handling food.

The decentralised kitchen units are equipped with necessary cooking equipment like
chapati pans, cooking vessels for rice and dal and vessels for transporting the
cooked mid-day meals to the schools. Personal hygiene and Food Safety training are
provided regularly to the kitchen staff to ensure hygiene standards are met.

All the kitchens have well trained Cooks and Production Supervisors to manage and
supervise the production. Critical Control Points (CCPs) like cooking temperature
are checked and recorded at periodic intervals to ensure the right quality of the
meal.

To ensure food quality is maintained, Quality Check is done by the Quality Officers
in each kitchen.
Food Packing and Transportation

The cooked food is packed in steam sterilised vessels. We use specially designed
and customised transport vehicles to deliver food which is packed in stainless
steel 304 grade vessels. These vehicles are steam sterilised before the loading
process. These vehicles use a puffed body to reduce the temperature loss and a
honeycomb structure to hold the vessels upright and keep the freshness of the
cooked meal intact till it is served to the children.

Delivery

Methods like Logistic charting for route optimisation, GPRS to track the delivery
vehicles for safety and on-time delivery are gradually being adopted and
implemented in the kitchens.

Post Delivery Process

In order to consistently maintain the quality of the meal, we take feedbacks from
schools on a daily basis while delivering the meal. The Quality Officers in the
kitchens review the feedback and initiate or trigger appropriate corrective or
improvement actions to improve the quality and delivery of food. We also circulate
‘Do’s and Don’ts’ pamphlets to all schools on a regular basis for creating
awareness on food safety and hygiene while serving the mid-day meals.

Audit & Review mechanisms play a key role in monitoring the key processes & systems
and their performance. So, we have institutionalised Good Manufacturing Process
(GMP) Monthly Audits, Surprise Audits on Food Safety & Quality, to name a few.
Quality Metrics Performance is reviewed on a monthly basis. Detailed Customer
Satisfaction Surveys are done by the Quality Staff at periodic intervals apart from
the day-to-day feedback we take during the delivery of food. In certified kitchens,
ISO 22000 Internal Audits are done twice a year by qualified Internal Auditors led
by Quality & FSMS Managers, and our Certification body does the surveillance audits
twice a year. The data from all the respective audits are reviewed and appropriate
improvement or corrective actions are taken. All actions are further monitored till
effective implementation.

Continual Improvement methods

As we aim to maintain and better our services by sustaining the quality of the mid-
day meals we provide, there is a need for continual improvement. We need to advance
the performance of various processes continuously so that every cycle of
improvement leads to the next level of achievement. We adopted a holistic approach
and designed a programme called ‘AkshayaPragathi’. As a part of the programme we
are adopting and implementing Kaizen, CI Projects and Six Sigma methodologies to
ensure and make every member a part of these initiatives.

Training is an integral part of the Continual Improvement Programme. The Financial

Year 2012-13 saw training on 5S, GMP, Lean and Kaizen, and ISO 22000 Awareness for
kitchen employees across all locations for more than 6,000 man hours. The Quality
Department aims to conduct 15,000 man hours of training on similar topics in the
Financial Year 2013-14.

OUR ROLE

The Akshaya Patra Foundation started its mid-day meal programme in June, 2000 by
providing free mid-day meals to 1,500 children in 5 Government schools in
Bengaluru, Karnataka. Over the past 16 years, the constant support from the
Government of India, various State Governments and associated organisations has
enabled the programme to grow by leaps and bounds. Today, this organisation feeds
free mid-day meals to 1.6 million schoolchildren in 13,529 Government schools and
Government-aided schools. The organisation currently has its presence in 27
locations across 11 states in India. This not-for-profit organisation has been
conferred as the world’s largest NGO-run mid-day meal programme (source).

millenium-declaration-2000

Hunger and Illiteracy are India’s two major challenges. There is a serious
malnutrition case in India with the World Bank’ estimate of 60 million children in
India, being underweight. Hunger is an obstacle to child’s health, education and
survival.

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. This is in
partnership with the Government of India and all the various State Governments.

TEMPLE

The “Hare Krishna Movement Jaipur” Or “Hare Krishna Mandir Jaipur” commonly known
as “Akshay Patra Mandir Jaipur” Or “Sri Sri Krishna-Balaram Mandir” is a huge
cultural complex in Jaipur city aiming to carry out the vision of His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (in short addressed as “Srila Prabhupada”), the
Founder-Acarya of Hare Krishna Movement promote Vedic culture and spiritual
learning.

Hare Krishna Mandir Jaipur in Jaipur attracts visitors from different parts of the
world and it offers a truly commendable experience to visitors and devotees from a
spiritual, architectural, and general perspective. The Hare Krishna Movement temple
is more than a place of rituals.

Temple ImageIt reaches out to all classes of society in all age groups through a
series of spiritual, educational, and cultural activities. It's aim is to make the
biggest temple in Rajasthan and to spread the Krishna Consciousness to more & more
people

Hare Krishna Mandir introduces society by ancient vedic wisdom following Bhagavad -
gita and Srimad - Bhagavatam. Deity darshan, harinam sankirtan, regular aarties,
sadhu sanga, spiritual discussions, celebrating festivals and honoring delicious
prasadam attracts the devotees from different parts of the region. Enchanting
sounds of Hare Krishna Maha Mantra makes you find your eternal bliss in sankirtan
hall and gives you never forgetting experience of spirituality.

This mandir is a humble offering to Srila Prabhupada, our eternal spiritual master,
and shelter & for Almighty Lord Sri Krishna, the original attraction of everyone.

Hare Krishna Mandir, Jaipur is established to spread the sublime message of Krishna
Consciousness among the people of Jaipur by spreading the glories of Hare Krishna
Maha-mantra, distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books & free distribution of food
(prasadam). The Movement also started its charitable activities through the Akshaya
Patra program for the welfare of society.
A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
Srila Prabhupada
His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada is the Acharya or Diksha Guru of the Hare Krishna
Movement. He worked relentlessly to impart knowledge, enlighten minds and establish
the Hare Krishna movement globally.