Summer Feeding at Holiday Clubs – 2021

Summer Feeding - Holiday Clubs Children - Akshaya Patra

2021’s summer holidays are going to be difficult in many ways for children of low-income families. They face multiple risks:

  • Food insecurity
  • Absence of Free School Meal provision
  • Added hardship and financial pressure at home/loss of jobs & income among parents TAPF UK

The Akshaya Patra Foundation exists to fight holiday hunger and classroom hunger among children in the UK. In what is its largest service in 3 years, the charity is ready to serve up to 50,000 hot meals among children of low-income families in various boroughs/locations of Greater London.

We realize that this meal is most likely to be the only guaranteed/wholesome meal for children, so some extra thought and research has gone into designing these meals. Unlike any other food service by a charity in London, these meals are:

  • Served hot at the recommended temperature
  • Freshly cooked each morning
  • Packed in steel utensils to retain temperature and nutrition
  • Diverse! The menu caters to children of all backgrounds
  • Tasty and nutritious meals for growing children
  • Vegetarian, balanced diet with addition of fruit with each meal
  • Ayurveda inspired ingredients and recipes – Aptly, our programme is called Nourish to Flourish

TAPF UK (The Akshaya Patra Foundation UK) is getting ready to serve up to 50,000 freshly cooked hot, nutritious meals to children of low-income families, in Greater London, during the 6 weeks of summer holidays. A fruit always accompanies the meal. The food is cooked at our just launched state-of-the-art kitchen in Watford in North London.


WEEK 1 : DAY 1

We have been gearing up for this day for so long and it’s finally here! Our day 1 of delivering hot meals to children in holiday clubs in greater London this summer. Meals were prepared freshly very early morning today and one of our more popular food (among the children) was packed in air-tight sealed steel vessels (to maintain the temperature and nutrients) was delivered to various schools in and around London.

Menu for today: Tomato Basil Pasta
Total Number of Meals: 1607
1542 Tomato Basil Pasta; 65 meals (allergen-free meal) – Mexican rice


DAY 2

Who doesn’t like a good curry with steaming rice? On Day 2 of our summer service, racks of rice, cooked to perfection by our trained and experienced chefs can be seen. Protein-rich Chickpeas in a stew to go with it.

Menu for today: Chickpea Stew with Rice
Total Number of Meals: 1764


DAY 3

Feeding a child is different from feeding a child responsibly. At TAPF UK, we focus on nutrition. A good dose of seasonal vegetables goes into our Veg Tagine, served with wholesome Cous Cous on the side.

Menu for today: Cous Cous and Veg Tagine
Total Number of Meals: 2051


DAY 4

Say cheese! Mac and cheese makes a dull day exciting.

Menu for today: Mac & Cheese
Total Number of Meals: 2026


DAY 5

Thank God it is Friday! The yummiest of all Jacket Potatoes with baked beans being lined up for delivery. As a special Friday treat our ever generous kitchen staff sent some freshly baked slices of cake for children.

If you’d like to donate a meal on a special occasion, you can donate via the button at the end of this blog or email us at office@tapf.org.uk

Menu for today: Jacket Potato with Baked Beans & Cheese
Total Number of Meals: 1157


WEEK 2 : DAY 1

Summer Feeding is going on and we have managed to serve over 8000 meals on the first week. On our first day of the second week, we are making spaghetti with a whole of load of veggies. Veggies are fresh and packed with nutrition and hence become one of the main ingredients of our meals to children. Wholesome food like this helps keep children energetic and mentally active throughout the day.

Menu for today: Spaghetti with Vegetables
Total Number of Meals: 1721


Day 2

We believe that only when you are nourished you flourish. We are sending out lunches that are prepared daily and served hot. This is done at no cost to the child and with your support by donations to our campaigns, we make sure no child goes hungry. Spread the word by sharing this post with your family and friends.

Menu for today: Veg 3 bean Curry with Rice
Total Number of Meals: 2098


Day 3

Look at these beautiful colours in our meals going out today. Veg Jambalaya contains some very nutritious & colourful veggies with mild spices and is cooked keeping children’s palette in mind. We are trying to find more recipes so that our children have access to some nutritious food. If you have a few good recipes in mind please share them with us.

Menu for today: Veg Jambalaya
Total Number of Meals: 2095


Day 4

Hot Steaming Mac & Cheese for our kids today. Pasta provides a good source of complex carbohydrates, so this Mighty Macaroni & Cheese recipe is a great option to boost energy levels & calcium intake and to top it all off kids just love these.

Menu for today: Mac & Cheese
Total Number of Meals: 2045


Day 5

On the menu today we have Mexican Rice with Curry freshly cooked and served in vessels to maintain the hot temperature. Our food is always served hot for a simple reason – the human digestive system works better with foods and liquids that are at warmer temperatures i.e it doesn’t have to work as hard to digest the food. Cold foods shock the digestive system and make your gut work overtime in order to break down nutrients in the food.

Menu for today: Mexican Rice with Curry
Total Number of Meals: 1003


WEEK 3

This week we were lucky enough to have met a few children who were receiving these meals. Some were happy that the meals were actually hot when they begin lunch. Since we are trying to avoid wastage and use of plastic containers we have been able to retain heat by sending out meals in steel vessels.

Total Number of Meals Served in Week 3: 7757


Bookmark this page as we will continue updating all our summer feeding activities here.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *