Learn more about Akshay Patra

Here are some of the facts about Akshaya Patra, hope you admire and circulate the good words in benefit of the society:

1. Akshaya Patra, founded in year 2000, is a Non Profit Organization based out of Bengaluru as an initiative of ISKCON for not just feeding school children but also to bring them to schools.
2. It has some 24 kitchens in 10 states across India and serves over 1.4 million school children.
3. Its model mega-kitchen in Hubli (Karnataka) produced over 150,000 meals in less than 5 hours of time.
4. Hubli kitchen is a 3 storey building which uses a special gravity flow mechanism to transport raw ingredients from one cooking station to another through various mechanical and rotary systems. A system of chutes and outlets create a fuel-efficient & labour-free way to save cooking time.
5. At 4 AM workers begin cleaning approximately 15 tonnes of rice and 4 tonnes of pulses; again through mechanized robots. Once given a thorough scrub-up, they’re shunted down through holes in the floor to the next stage.
6. Just like rice and pulses, 8 to 9 tonnes of vegetables and seasoning are sent flying down the chutes into the steaming hot cauldrons in the floor below.
7. Everything is mechanized and while the cooking is on it's closely monitored by Quality Managers.
8. By 8 AM hot meals are ready to be loaded into vans and sent to over 1,000 schools within 100 kms radius.
9. Work begins really early at the kitchen and draws to an end by 10 AM. The preparation for the next day’s meal starts around noon.
10. Before the staff disperses, they meet and sing a prayer to Lord Krishna. With it, the proverbial ‘Bottomless Vessel’ is ready to serve again the next day.
11. The organisation’s efforts have paid off. The meals have not just improved the health of children, they have drastically reduced the drop-out rates of school children; ensuring they remain in school and get proper education.

Here are some of the images which tell us how rigorously the organization works for the benefit of schoolchildren:

Thanks, with hopes that no child gets deprived of food and basic education.

Credits: Scoop Whoop, Akshaya Patra