As much as food is important for all of us, education has also emerged as an essential need nowadays. We need basic education and learning to make a good career, achieve big dreams, and support our families. However, there are lots of juniors who are not able to get proper schooling due to the poverty crisis in their families. This poverty has forced multiple poor children to work or beg on the streets just to feed themselves and their families. It’s a painful reality that’s resulted in an underdeveloped country with way too many poor kids – and it’s still happening in the 21st century.

To control and ensure that poor children can go to school daily, NGOs have come forward to donate meals to schools so that children can focus on their studies rather than feeling hungry all the time or trying to feed themselves through labor or begging. One such organization that is working hard to feed poor children is Akshaya Patra.

Who is Akshaya Patra?

Akshaya Patra (enunciated Aak-sh-ayah pa-tra) conducts the biggest school meal program in the world. Every day, we feed mid-day meals to over 2.2 million children in more than 24,000 schools. The Akshaya Patra Foundation USA also plays a tremendous role by rallying volunteers and contributors to raise funds and attention, all with the dream of ending childhood hunger.

Akshaya Patra’s Programs That Make a Difference

Akshaya Patra(We!) supervises several programs desired to sweeten the lives of juveniles and families:

1. Mid-Day Meal: We serve more than 2.2 million hot meals every day so that children can focus on their schooling rather than the pangs of hunger distracting them.
2. Anganwadi: This initiative delivers nutritional meals to babies, juniors, and pregnant or nursing mommies.
3. Digital Education: A collaboration between private and public sectors gives free tickets to digital learning resources, making education more affordable.
4. Scholarship: A form of funding provided to those students who continue their education after completing the secondary level.
5. Food Recovery: This initiative recovers edible food otherwise destined to become waste and redistributes it to those who are hungry.

How is Akshaya Patra Changing Children’s Lives?

Akshaya Patra was founded to tackle child hunger and promote education. And guess what? The results were noticeable right away! School heads reported higher attendance rates and improvements in both student health and academic performance shortly after the Mid-Day Meal Program started. What commenced as a simple initiative flourished into something much more significant.

However, as the demand rose, we faced challenges in giving high-quality meals. This is when an alumnus of IIT-Bombay came forward and led the central fully mechanized kitchen idea where over 100,000 meals are produced within a five-hour timeframe with no compromise in the taste or nutritional quotient.

Today, after two decades of journey, the growth of Akshaya Patra is tremendous. And, this growth is all about better attendance at school and good educational and health outcomes for the child.

High-Tech Kitchen Innovations

One of the coolest things about Akshaya Patra is how we have adopted technology in their kitchen procedures. Akshaya Patra kitchens are super efficient and concentrated on minimizing trash. Here are some fun facts:

We serve up to 6,000 meals in about six hours.

A workforce of roughly 6,000 people, with 30% of them being women, makes this possible.

We save about 788.95 megatons of carbon emissions every year.

We can cook over 6,000 chapatis every hour.

Our kitchens are equipped with Six Sigma, Kaizen, blockchain, and IoT technology.

We produce 1,200 liters of rice, sambar, and dal every 15 minutes!

How Can You Help?

Feeling inspired? You can also make a difference! Akshaya Patra offers several easy ways for people like us to get involved:

Online Donations: Quick and straightforward—just hop onto their website to donate.

Mail: Prefer the traditional route? You can send a check to the Akshaya Patra Foundation USA, P.O. Box 14220, Fremont, CA 94539.

Bank Transfers: Use the provided routing and account numbers for direct bank donations.

Venmo and Zelle: These popular apps allow for instant contributions.

Crypto and Stocks: If you’re into tech, you can donate cryptocurrency or stocks as well.

Fundraisers: You can either support existing fundraisers or start your own to rally your community for this cause.

No matter how much you decide to give, every little bit counts. Your donations help guarantee that more children can sit in class with full stomachs, ready to learn and evolve.

Conclusion

So, to conclude, education and nourishment go hand in hand. But our future generation is still facing poverty and starvation issues, and to control poverty and enhance educated youth, NGOs are working well to provide mid-day meals to school children who actually need them. By supporting organizations like Akshaya Patra mid day meal donation, we can help create a brighter future for children who otherwise might miss out on the opportunity to learn and grow. And, if you also have the desire to feed poor children, you can donate to our organization. So, it’s the time to come together to ensure that every child has the chance to thrive, one meal at a time.