Change A Child's Life By Giving Hope

By Author: Akshaya Patra
Total Articles: 75
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Children are the foundation on which the future of a nation is built. The Akshaya Patra Foundation strengthens this base by implementing the Government of India’s Mid-Day Meal Scheme. The Foundation feeds nutritious school meals to over 1.8 million children studying in 19,039 Government schools and Government-aided schools every day. Hygienically cooked meals are prepared from centralised and decentralised kitchens from 52 locations spread across 12 States and 2 Union Territories.

To know about all the Akshaya Patra kitchens serving mid-day meals in India, click here.

Mid-day meals are a great intervention to help children take a step forward towards their education. Quality and hygiene are top priorities during the whole process of feeding children – starting from procuring of raw materials to taking feedback on the quality of meals. Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) are implemented in all kitchens to prepare, handle, and deliver meals. The best raw materials are procured after implementing the Supplier Quality Management System (SQMS). By the use of 304 Grade stainless steel in its kitchens, meals are cooked in vessels that can endure high temperature levels to ensure that hot meals reach the children on a daily basis.

To know more about the ISO Certified Kitchens, click here.

What is the impact of mid-day meals on children?

Mid-day meals have a long-term effect on children. When you donate online, you bring out the best in them in the following manner:

• Mid-day meals fill a child’s stomach and with a full stomach, children concentrate better without any diversions in class. School lunches help in eliminating classroom hunger.
• When there is an increased attention-span in school, grades of children improve automatically.
• Regular school meals become a reason for children to come back to school every day. This becomes a source for them to continue their education as well.
• Mid-day meals when consumed on a daily basis, become a source of healthy development in children which gives them hope to dream like other children.

Here is a short story of the children who go to schools in anticipation of mid-day meals.

Children sit in the classroom; some rubbing their eyes, some yawning, one child asking doubts to another and some trying to concentrate hard on the teacher’s voice. Some of their stomachs growl with hunger and some of them are unable to concentrate in class because of the rats running in their stomachs.

All children wait for the faintest sound of the peon walking towards the bell. Their ears stand up on the onset of the lunch break bell. Chaos sets in with the ‘yeayy’ of children. All of them frantically close their books and run towards the blue delivery vans that have just finished unloading their food. They all line up for their plates in a systematic order, one behind the other without hitting or pushing one another, waiting for their turn to be served with hot and yummy food. They sit together with their friends, classmates, juniors and seniors and savour their school meals like one big family.
Once they are done, they are all back to their classes where a few of them concentrate in class while others engage in co-curricular activities and the rest take part in physical activities.
To read stories of children, click here.

You too can support the feeding of children to bring the excitement and smiles on their faces. Your support can feed unlimited food for education to children with Akshaya Patra.

Share this article within your circle of family and friends to help us in feeding 5 million children every day, by 2025.
With the onset of the unprecedented Coronavirus disaster, Akshaya Patra is working towards providing food relief to daily-wage workers, labourers and the marginalised sections of the society, with cooked meals and essential kits. To help the people in distress, click here to donate.

To make a mid-day meal donation, click here.

I'm a social volunteer, lives in Bengaluru. I do work for NGOs to make society better. Currently I'm working for The Akshaya Patra Foundation. It's an NGO in India which provides wholesome nutritious mid-day meals to government school children to end classroom hunger. https://www.akshayapatra.org/