Akshaya Patra’s ideals and work impressed NMDC to partner in providing nutritious, hygienically cooked noon meals to the less privileged children studying in Government Schools of Sandur Taluk, Bellary District. The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been selected by M/s. NMDC Limited, a navaratna PSU, to do its mite for mitigating hunger & illiteracy in one of the most backward areas of Karnataka. NMDC has donated two custom built food distribution vehicles costing Rs 28.35 Lakhs and an amount of Rs 25.33 Lakhs towards feeding cost for 2008-09 of 2,150 children in the Government Schools of Sandur Taluk in Bellary District, (Total amount of Rs 53.68 Lakhs). The programme was launched & the vehicles were flagged off in Feb ’08. With NMDC’s support, Akshaya Patra has now been able to increase its reach to more schools in a bigger region and include more children in the free meal plan. Currently the foundation is feeding over 70,000 numbers of school children in Bellary district.
NMDC is India’s single largest iron ore producer, presently producing about 30.00 million tons of iron ore from 3 fully mechanized mines viz. Balladila Deposit-14/11C, Balladila Deposit-5, 10/11A (Chhattisgarh State) and Donimalai Iron Ore Mines (Karnataka State) which are awarded ISO 9001-2000 certification. It is also one of the few consistently profit making and dividend paying company.
NMDC is sponsoring various development works in the area as required by local authorities such as establishment of Bellary district science centre, providing infrastructure facility to hospitals, schools, colleges and for other social cultural activities.
MORE ABOUT AKSHAYA PATRA
Unlimited Food for Education.
(NATIONAL LEVEL SCHOOL MEAL PROGRAMME)
According to a UNESCO report, around 13.5 million children in the age group of 6-13 years are out of school in India. Despite the trillion-dollar economic growth, a large chunk of India’s younger generation, does not have access to schools because of poverty and malnutrition.
To facilitate the education of needy children, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, provides unlimited noon meals in schools in partnership with the Central and respective state governments of India. Currently the program is feeding 8,38,000 children in over 4,500 government, government aided schools and anganwadis (day care centers) in 13 locations across India on any given day.
They are Bangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Bellary, Mangalore and Mysore in Karnataka, Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh, Jaipur, Nathdwara and Baran in Rajasthan, Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Puri in Orissa. This is the largest NGO run school meal program in the world.
What makes Akshaya Patra unique?
1. The Akshaya Patra program uses centralized, automated kitchens for cooking food which is then distributed to schools through special purpose vehicles.
2. Akshaya Patra’s kitchens can cook about 100,000 meals in less than five hours with least human intervention and sustained quality.
3. A three item menu is served to children as per the recommendations of qualified nutritionists.
4. Due to extensive mechanization of the kitchen, the program is able to offer children standardized, high quality, hygienic meals.
5. The program also offers education and health interventions for holistic child development.
6. Akshaya Patra is a secular, not-for-profit program implemented only in government schools where there is no discrimination whatsoever.
7. The program is independently governed by a Board of Trustees & audited by KPMG.
8. A study in the year 2006 by AC Nielsen Org Marg Pvt Ltd, has vouchsafed for the efficacy of the program in increasing attendance and enrolment in schools, improving nutritional status of these children, enhancing their learning abilities and reducing drop out rates.
9. Akshaya Patra program is run with part subsidies from the government, besides financial support from corporates and individual philanthropists.
10. All contributions to The Akshaya Patra Foundation are eligible for 100% tax deduction under section 35AC/80GGA(bb)
11. With a vision to ensure that no child in India is deprived of education because of hunger, the Akshaya Patra Foundation is striving to end hunger and create a human resources pool that will propel India into the league of developed nations.
*Education for ALL Global Monitoring Report 2007, UNESCO
