Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest NGO run mid-day meals programme in India. In order to fully see why are doing what we do we might have to take you back a little bit.
Flashback to your childhood days
As children, we have so much energy in us that parents often find it difficult to tame us; they will constantly have to divert our attention or keep us occupied. We would have to wrestle with our mothers to go out and play with friends rather than sitting in a corner to do the homework. Our minds would constantly bombard with questions that our parents would have no answers to. This is the result of a highly energetic child.
If you ever wonder where children get this energy from, the secret lies in the food that our parents fed us. Our parents would coax us into emptying the contents on our plates; no amount of nagging or “I am full” would stop them. Parents always know what the best is for us. Food provides the majority of energy to children.
But, there are sections of society that cannot feed wholesome meals to their children. For them, there are various schemes like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India, which work as potential interventions.
Did you know? Children in the age group 4-8 years require a minimum of 1200-1400 calories per day.
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/downloads/calreqtips.pdf
In the initial stages of life, between 6-14 years, the metabolism rate is high and food gets digested and absorbed fast. This is why there is a need to increase the nutritional content of meals.
Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meals scheme
The Akshaya Patra Foundation caters to feed those children who hail from challenging socio-economic backgrounds. It addresses long and short-term hunger by filling the nutritional gap. Akshaya Patra’s work is recognised as the world’s largest NGO run school lunch programme.
The organisation is present in 52 locations spread across 12 states and 2 union territories that operate from centralised and decentralised kitchens. It operates with the vision that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger” and by 2025, it aims to feed 5 million children every day.
Akshaya Patra in the UK with its Nourish To Flourish initiative serves locally palatable meals to children who sleep hungry during school holidays, due to lack of access to a plate of food. Along with feeding children in holiday clubs, council-run holiday centres and community hubs across London boroughs, it also feeds homeless people who suffer from food insecurity.
Contribute towards Akshaya Patra
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India that has been working relentlessly to feed children in India for the last 20 years. To support children and homeless people in the UK, you can make online donations to feed them. If each one of us can contribute to ensure meals to people and children in need, there will be no people who go to bed hungry.
Your support to sponsor meals is critical. The impact of an Akshaya Patra meal is more than that of simply satiating a child’s hunger for the day; it transforms lives.