Madhu Pandit Dasa is chairman of Akshaya Patra. A B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Mumbai, he initiated the Akshaya Patra program in the year 2000 by feeding 1500 children in 5 govt schools. Presently, this program reaches out to over 1.5 million school children in 26 locations in ten states in the country. We asked Madhu Pandit Dasa about Akshaya Patra, its vision and its success

How did the journey begin for Akshaya Patra? What was the motivation to start the foundation? 

Our founder Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was the inspiration behind the establishment of Akshaya Patra. In 1975, in Mayapur, a village near Kolkata, he witnessed a group of children fighting with stray dogs over scraps of food. From this simple, yet heart breaking incident, came the pronouncement to his followers, “No one within a ten mile radius of our centre go hungry.” It is this inspiration which lead to the creation of the Akshaya Patra Foundation as it is today.

We felt the need of specifically feeding the underserved school children. As this would not only provide food to children in need but will also boost education levels within communities by ensuring higher levels of retention.

With this thought in mind we started our pilot project that involved serving mid-day meals to 1,500 children across five Government schools in Bangalore. In due time the word spread, that “free and delicious food” is being served and that is when other schools started approaching us and within six months, we had requests for 1 lakh school children.

Witnessing this overwhelming response, we set ourselves on a challenging goal of feeding 1 million children within 10 years and we knew that this could translate into reality if the society as a whole would use some of its resources and support the cause. Earlier this year we attained the milestone of serving two billion millions and we are optimistic that Akshaya Patra will be able to fulfil its mission of ‘feeding 5 million children by 2020.’

Akshaya Patra has just recently gone past the unique distinction of serving 2 billion meals!!! How was this mammoth task achieved without compromising on hygiene, nutrition and most importantly "compassion”? 

 Compassion and empathy are two prime emotions that govern our hearts at Akshaya Patra. For Akshaya Patra, compassion is a response to the endless plights of children who are deprived of food and education in India. It is compassion in our hearts that has constantly motivated us to move out of our way and help children in need. In other words, the very existence of Akshaya Patra is a story of compassion and hope.

Since Akshaya Patra deals with a perishable commodity like food, hygiene is the second most important aspect that is looked into after food quality. All Akshaya Patra kitchens are 5S (sort, simplify, scrub, standardise and sustain), GMP (good manufacturing processes) and GHP (good hygiene practices) compliant, checked with regular audits. The kitchen staff is also carefully trained in the importance of maintaining excellent personal hygiene. All members therefore follow a regiment of taking daily showers before arriving at the kitchen; using clean uniforms, caps, masks, gloves, gumboots and other protective gear; and regular hand sanitisation to maintain hygiene standards in the kitchens. To offer only quality and safely cooked food to our beneficiaries Akshaya Patra has implemented Supplier Quality Management Systems (SQMS), in the pre-production process. First In First Out (FIFO) method has also been adopted in our kitchens to ensure efficient utilisation of perishable commodities. Thirteen of our kitchens are accredited with certification of ISO 22000:2005 for excellence in Food Safety Management System (FSMS).

Akshaya Patra through its healthy and nutritious meals attempts to address twin issues of hunger and malnutrition for its beneficiaries every school day. Our Mid-Day Meal Programme is strictly in compliance with the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for children. The menu is designed in such a fashion that children automatically get their daily intake of fresh vegetables, dairy products, cereals, beans, legumes and oils imperative for increasing nutritional levels. Akshaya Patra also makes a conscious effort to modify the menus on a timely manner so that children get more variety and a change of taste in terms of the food served. Lots of seasonal vegetables are also incorporated in the recipes to make the meals wholesome and more palatable. Knowing that we serve different local palates, our menus are custom tailored to match the North Indian and South Indian palates. Milk and curd is also served to beneficiaries along with fruits and sweets on special occasions that act as an incentive to their daily meals. It is our conscious effort to ensure that food is in abundance and children eat only healthy and nutritious food.

Eradicating hunger is no mean task in a vast country such as India. In the Western countries volunteerism is institutionalized. In India, while there may be individual philanthropists, philanthropy and volunteerism hasn't become an important fabric of the society. Can Akshaya Patra change that mental make-up?   

Yes, we can! In fact, Akshaya Patra has been very fortunate to receive an overwhelming response in terms of philanthropy and volunteerism from its donors, volunteers and supporters. Over the years, the society as an entity has understood and felt the need of ‘giving back’ to the society. This developmental change has helped Akshaya Patra as an organisation to energise and apprise conscientious people who want to associate themselves with causes of social importance that impact the overall Human Development in India.

Through our cause of ‘unlimited food for education’ we have been able to provide individuals of philanthropic bent and charitable wishes, a platform to bring positive changes in the lives of underserved children. With corporate social responsibility (CSR) becoming mandatory (2013 Companies Act) for companies, Akshaya Patra has received donations, both in cash and kind from the corporates. Several corporates have partnered with Akshaya Patra for corporate volunteering, where employees have visited our kitchens and beneficiary schools. Countless individual donors and supporters have come forward to create interesting fundraising campaigns to help sustain our school feeding programme.

Over the years Akshaya Patra has also witnessed a growing footprint of interns, who have come and volunteered in Akshaya Patra from different parts of the world. Especially amongst the youth there has been a growing consensus to act as dynamic community players for the betterment of the society, primarily the underserved.

How does Akshaya Patra Foundation work with the Central and State Governments? Is it a challenge to coordinate and manoeuvre the myriad political fields of India? 

Akshaya Patra since inception has had an ardent desire to feed more number of children, addressing issues of hunger and education for them. We as an organisation have always felt the need to expand, excel and enhance our school lunch programme, so that millions of children are benefitted by our meals. In order to realise these developmental goals Akshaya Patra needed grants, subsidies, timely procurement of food grains, conversion costs and the permission to seek donations in India and overseas. All of this became conceivable when the organisation entered into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the Government of India and other State Governments in 2001 and started working as an implementing arm of the Government’s flagship programme (Mid-Day Meal).

Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) ensured timely allocation of grains and conversion costs. Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Food and Civil Supplies Corporations aided us with grants and subsidies, along with timely procurement of food grains. Seeking donations in India was facilitated by the Finance Ministry while permission to collect overseas donations was rendered by The Ministry of Home Affairs. In précis, it is the PPP model that has played a pivotal role in increasing our reach and making Akshaya Patra’s school lunch programme what it is today.

Apart from the mid day meal scheme, is Akshaya Patra Foundation looking to manage other projects? We have just heard about your interest in managing the Hingonia cow centre.

Apart from the Mid-day Meal Programme, Akshaya Patra has undertaken other feeding and social initiatives with a wish to move beyond meals and make a difference in people’s lives.

Feeding Initiatives

•    Anganwadi feeding

•    Feeding expecting and lactating mothers

•    Feeding programmes in old-age homes

•    Feeding programmes in special schools

•    Feeding runaway children

•    Feeding the homeless

•    Subsidised lunch for the economically disadvantaged

Social Initiatives

•    After class tuitions

•    Community health camps

•    Health check-up camps

•    Life-skills programmes

•    Scholarship programmes

How does the Foundation leverage Technology in its mission? 

Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest School lunch Programme feeding over 1.6 million children daily by using technology extensively. Akshaya Patra believes in making efficient use of technology in an eco-friendly and sustainable manner to feed children at a large scale. This practice not only helps in utilising resources in a cost effective manner, but also supports in creating better ecological balance, a matter of great importance in the present-day world.

Akshaya Patra employs technology in its operations, kitchen process and various management processes. It is the pioneer in using technology in the Mid-Day Meal sector. The Centralized kitchens of Akshaya Patra are a testimony to this. All the Centralized kitchens are semi-mechanized with partial human interference. The mechanization of cooking process has helped in minimizing cooking time and also helped in meeting highest standards of hygiene.

One of Akshaya Patra’s most striking innovations is its three-tier kitchens based on gravity flow. Akshaya Patra kitchens were the first facilities (kitchens) to engineer the Gravity Flow Mechanism to prepare food on mass scale. For this innovative use of technology to benefit humanity, it won the Tech Award Laureate 2009 from the San Jose, California-based Tech Museum.

For better process efficiency, concepts such as Kaizen, 5S and Six Sigma Methodologies are also adopted at Akshaya Patra kitchens. To better manage the fleet of meal delivery vehicles, implementation of Global Positioning Devices (GPS) has also been started in a phased manner. This will ensure punctuality and also act as a safety measure of the meal delivery vehicles.

Akshaya Patra has also adopted a new organic waste to biogas system at its kitchens. This Biogas technology is among the most proven processes, which converts organic waste into energy processing 1,000 Kg of kitchen waste per day, replacing LPG. On an average this technology helps us to save around three cylinders worth of LPG per day.

At Akshaya Patra, we have also identified a technology to treat effluents called Porous Sulpha Sponge (PSS). This technology helps in scientific handling, disposal and recycling of runoffs and kitchens wastes.

From feeding food to growing food! Is that an approach the Foundation might take in the future to sustain itself? 

Akshaya Patra has already taken several steps to pursue backward integration to work directly with farmers and bring fresh raw produce from farm-to-plate. Our partnership with farmers has had manifold benefits. Since we buy the produce directly from farmers only the best makes way in our kitchens. This practice has also spared the farmers from the work of transporting all the produce and finding a vendor. Moreover, Akshaya Patra also supports these farmers’ that results in their betterment.

With backward integration, the organisation is setting foot to address the challenge of classroom hunger at the same time ensuring quality nutrition around the year.

You have several affiliate organizations across the world. How has the support been from people living outside of India? How can they contribute apart from financial contributions?

We have dedicated resource mobilization departments in our U.K. and U.S. office to help create awareness about Akshaya Patra’s school meal programme. We have been receiving support and aid from several organisations and Indian citizens residing in U.K. and U.S.; who believe in ‘giving back to their country.’

Regional chapters have been identified by committed volunteers in Akshaya Patra U.S. to help raise awareness and funds for Akshaya Patra. There is also a Youth Ambassador Programme, which provides an opportunity for the youth to be involved in Akshaya Patra’s cause. They help in raising funds so that their peers living in India have ample access to food and education.

Akshaya Patra’s U.K. wing also offers many ‘ways to help’ for individuals who want to extend their support to The Foundation. Besides fundraising they can take part in several events, provide consulting services and other activities conducted by The Foundation to volunteer and raise awareness about Akshaya Patra’s school meal programme.