Akshaya Patra serves wholesome and hygienic meals to over 1.75 million children across the nation.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, state governments and local government bodies such as the District and Zilla Panchayats have implemented the programme of Mid-Day Meal (MDM) in various government schools across the nation.

In 1925, a Mid Day Meal (MDM) programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation. By the mid 1980s three states- Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had universalized a cooked MDM programme with their own resources for children studying at the primary stage.

With a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children, the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on August 15, 1995.

Mid-day meal controversies

In April 2017, a teacher spotted a dead rat in the midday meal at a government-run primary school in Jamla village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar district, just before the food was served to the students. The government ordered an inquiry into the matter. After the information was received, the district officials, including the deputy collector and mamlatdar went to the school to investigate the matter.

In September 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government has taken action against 28 employees in the nutritional meal scam in Rae Bareli and Kannauj. There was a stir after midday meals meant for children were found in an animal fodder godown in Rae Bareli's Salon block. In this case, about 155 bags of children's meals were found at an animal fodder godown in the Salon block of Rae Bareli.

Recently, it was reported by The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that students in a government-run primary school in Mirzapur were getting roti and salt in their mid-day meal. NHRC sent a notice to UP chief secretary reporting the event.

Apart from all these controversies, in a primary school in Malihabad area in the outskirts of Lucknow, sub-standard food was being provided to students and milk, which was supposed to be served, was excluded from the meal.

Reality check: In order to find out the entire procedure of preparation of mid-day meals, India Today Education conducted a reality check and visited the Bengaluru based kitchen of The Akshaya Patra Foundation where they cook mid-day meals for around 90,000 students.

Here's how Akshaya Patra's kitchen works

The Akshaya Patra Foundation operates in 47 kitchens across 12 states in India. Apart from this, it operates steam-based kitchens which cook around 6,500 to 7,000 kg of rice at a time.

Centralised kitchens are large kitchen units that have the capacity to typically cook up to 1,00,000 meals. These kitchens serve a set of schools located around the unit. The Bengaluru-based kitchen serves mid-day meals to around 90,000 students in various government schools.

They are automated and thus ensure hygiene during the cooking processes. These kitchens are run by the women Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

The entire process involves sterilization tanks, customized vehicles, zero wastage of food and proper tracking of food to be delivered.

The NGO uses curd in place of glue to paste the stickers on mid-day meal containers.

Hygienic kitchen:

Hygiene plays a crucial role when it comes to food safety. We, at Akshaya Patra's kitchen discovered that the organisation takes measures to maintain cleanliness at the premises and ensures that the kitchen staff abides by certain hygiene best practices. The kitchen employees wear clean clothes, hairnets or caps, gloves, and proper shoes at all times.

Contribution of school authorities in distribution of food to kids

"School authorities are very cooperative when it comes to the Mid-Day Meal Programme. While there are helpers for actually serving the food to children, the headmaster and teachers are always around to make sure that the whole process goes on in a smooth manner," said Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

Furthermore, the VC added that since schools are important stakeholders of the foundation, their feedback is important too.

Akshya Patra to feed 5 million children by 2025

Taking about the foundation's target to feed 5 million children by 2025, Chanchalapathi Dasa said, "We are in talks with other State Governments to extend our services which will add to the overall feeding volume."

In addition, he said that every new unit will take them a step closer to their mission of reaching 5 million children in every school in a day by 2025.

Akshaya Patra's 'Giving Every Dream a Chance' project:

Apart from providing mid-day meals in government schools, 'The Akshaya Patra Foundation' embarked on a pilot project 'Giving Every Dream a Chance'. It believes that every child has a dream and each dream is valid and hence intends to provide the right path to the child.

The project aims to initiate a sponsorship programme to ensure continued support to 100 children, conduct mentorship programmes to nurture talents and to identify more children with unique dreams across the country.

Objective behind this initiative:

The motive behind the project was to assure children that their dreams are valid as well as promote their dreams to make them come true.

Moreover, this initiative has scaled up to provide training and mentorship in 15 government schools to more than 200 children in the field of dance, theatre, origami, math, science, english and football, with the support of other organisations and individual mentors.

Read: Akshaya Patra midday meal row: Is food without onion and garlic not nutritious?

Also read: Akshay Patra's school meals project wins Global Champion Award