The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Bengaluru,

India. Our organisation strives to eliminate classroom hunger by implementing the Mid-Day
Meal Scheme in the government schools and government-aided schools. Alongside,
Akshaya Patra also aims at countering malnutrition and supporting the right to education of
socio-economically disadvantaged children.
Since 2000, Akshaya Patra has been concerting all its efforts towards providing fresh and
nutritious meals to children on every single school day. We are continuously leveraging
technology to multiply our reach. The state-of-the-art kitchens have become a subject of
study and have attracted curious visitors from around the world.
Our partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments, along with
the persistent support from corporates, individual donors, and well-wishers have helped us
to grow from serving just 1,500 children in 5 schools in 2000 to serving 1.6 million children
in 13,839 schools.
Today, Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest (not-for-profit run) Mid-Day Meal Programme
serving wholesome food every school day to over 1.6 million children from 13,839 schools
across 12 states in India.

The Growth of The Akshaya Patra Foundation – A Quick Overview

On 28 November 2001, the Supreme Court of India passed a mandate, "Cooked mid-day
meal is to be provided in all the Government and Government-aided primary schools in all the
states." And, Akshaya Patra was also called upon to provide testimonies to the Supreme
Court.
By the time the Ministry of Human Resource Development - Department of School Health
and Education extended its support to the initiative in 2003, Akshaya Patra was already
reaching out to 23,000 children.
Today, Akshaya Patra has 34 kitchens spread across 12 states in India, a result of the
successful partnership with the Government of India, various State Governments and
generous supporters.

History of The Akshaya Patra Foundation

 Looking out of a window, one day in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta, His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada saw a group of children fighting with stray dogs
over scraps of food. From this simple, yet heart-breaking incident was born a determination
that no child within a radius of ten miles from our centre should go hungry.
His inspiring resolve sowed the seeds of The Akshaya Patra Foundation. With the vision:
"No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger," Akshaya Patra started the
Mid-Day Meal Programme in June 2000 by serving mid-day meals to 1,500 children across
five government schools in Bengaluru, Karnataka. A humble beginning, yet, the initial days
of implementing the programme was not a smooth sail. Soon came the helping hands of
Mohandas Pai, who took the initiative of donating the first vehicle to transport food to the
schools; and Abhay Jain, who promised to bring in more donors to contribute for the
further expansion of the programme.
In partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments, as well as
philanthropic donors; the organisation is running the world’s largest Mid-Day Meal
Programme. Built on a Public-Private Partnership model, Akshaya Patra combines good
management, innovative technology, and smart engineering to deliver nutritious and
hygienic school lunch on every school day.

So What Makes ‘The Akshaya Patra Foundation’ Unique?

1. Focussed programme that is child-centric and directly addresses Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs 1&2)
2. Works in a public-private partnership with Central and State governments
3. One of the largest NGOs in India that has upscaled operations to over 45 million children
4. Centralised, automated gravity flow kitchens that can cook close to 6,000 kilos of rice, 4.5 to 5
tonnes of vegetables and 6,000 litres of sambar, in under 4 hours
5. Roti making machines that can turn out 40,000 rotis per hour
6. Three biogas kitchens and three more coming up
7. High quality meals at Rs. 750 per child per year (deficit – national average after government
subsidies)
8. Supply chain that transports cooked food to schools through heat-insulated, dust-free special
purpose vehicles.
9. Hot freshly cooked meals served on all school working days
10. Caters to local dietary preferences and serves a three item menu meal
11. ISO 22000 certification for eleven Akshaya Patra kitchens
12. Recipient of several prestigious awards
13. Subject of a Harvard Business School case study
14. In 2014 Akshaya Patra was named among the top 100 NGOs in the world by The Global Journal,
a reputed journal published out of Switzerland. It was ranked 1st in the category of Children and
Youth and was ranked 23rd among the top 100 NGOs.
15. The Public Relations Council of India has awarded Akshaya Patra for outstanding collaterals
16. Akshaya Patra has won the Gold Award in Excellence in Financial Reporting for five consecutive
years & is in the Hall of fame now.
17. Looking beyond the mid-day meal programme
 WHO Life Skills trainings for children in schools
 Providing micro-nutrients along with mid-day meals
 Enabling nutrition supplements for anganwadis and lactating mothers in villages
 Partnered with the Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India and respective
State Governments to impart training of food safety, quality and hygiene to MDM cook-cum-
helpers the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, Punjab.

The Programmes Run by ‘The Akshaya Patra Foundation’

To begin with – the Government of India had implemented Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS)
to counter classroom hunger, and when the Supreme Court of India passed an order directing
the State Governments / Union Territories to initiate the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Akshaya Patra
was called in to partner with the governments to implement the Mid- Day Meal programme.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme was / is aimed to:

 Avoid classroom hunger

 Increase school enrolment
 Increase school attendance
 Improve socialisation among castes
 Address malnutrition and
 Empower women through employment

Akshaya Patra currently runs its operations across 24 locations in 10 states of India
through two kitchen models – Centralised and De-centralised.

 Centralised Kitchens: They are large factory-like semi-automated kitchen units with a capacity
to typically cook about 100,000 hygienic meals a day. These kitchens serve a set of schools
located around the units.

 Decentralized Kitchens: These are units which cater to locations with unfavourable
geographical terrain, improper road connectivity, or don’t support construction of large
infrastructure. They are majorly run by Women Self-Help Groups under the guidance and
supervision of Akshaya Patra’s kitchen process and operations module.

They brought the best thinking in manufacturing, supply chain, innovation and logistics
management to create kitchen’s, many of which are ISO-9000 certified, are really food factories,
capable of cooking food daily for up to 200,000 people each. For Akshaya, hygiene and cleanliness
is of utmost importance their kitchen infrastructure will give an overview of its compliance to Food
Safety and Quality Standards as well.
 The impact of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme by Akshaya Patra has been such that today, it feeds 1.4
million children every day across 24 locations in 10 states of India and has Centralised Kitchens
in 22 locations and Decentralised Kitchens in 2 locations.
The technology and process used in their kitchens have been a topic of research and study in the
course curriculum of many renowned universities such as AC Nielsen Impact Study and Harvard
Case Study, and some other government studies as well.
The summary of findings of the impact studies include – Increase in enrolment, Increase in
attendance, Increase in concentration, Improvement in socialisation, Decrease of malnutrition
and Empowerment of women.
Akshaya Patra also serves as a Member of the National Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee
(NSMC) for the Mid-Day Meal Programme too.
Other than these, Akshaya also runs several other Feeding and Socio-Developmental
Programmes, such as: -

 Feeding Programmes: – Anganwadi feeding; Feeding expecting and lactating mothers, special schools,
old-age homes, homeless, etc…
 Socio-developmental Initiatives: – After class tuitions, Life skills programme, Community health
camps, Scholarship programmes, Health check-up camps, etc…

The Founders
The Akshaya Patra Foundation had been founded by Madhu Pandit Dasa in 2000. Under the
leader of MadhuPandit Dasa, Chairman and Chanchalapati Dasa, Vice Chairman the organisation
is run by Shridhar Venkat (CEO), who manages a team that consists of individuals with specific
skills in fields of Management, Operations, Finance and Accountancy, Communications, etc…

 Madhu Pandit Dasa

Born in 1956 in Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu; Madhu Pandit Dasa (formerly named as Madhusudan S)
is the founder of The Akshaya Foundation.
He has completed his Bachelors in Technology in Civil Engineering from the prestigious IIT
(Bombay) in the year 1980, post which, he went on to pursue his Masters in Technology from IIT
(Bombay) itself. As a degree student, he had also been selected by the National Science Talent
search program of the country.
 While at IIT, he had grown interest in the books of Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of
ISKCON Foundation. As the time passed and he moved to complete his Masters, his interest grew
so much that he decided to dedicate himself to the service of Lord Krishna by becoming a full-
time missionary member of ISKCON.
Today, he holds various management positions at the ISKCON foundation and its subsidiaries,
some of which include: -

1. Governing Body Commissioner of ISKCON Bangalore Group of Temples

2. Temple President, ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Mandir, Bangalore
3. Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation
4. Managing Trustee, Hare Krishna Movement

Since then, a long list of accomplishments have been listed under his name, one of which being
the initiation of Akshaya Patra Foundation!

 Shridhar Venkat – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Shridhar presently acts as the Chief Executive Officer of The Akshaya Foundation since the past
2 years, before which, he held the position of Executive Director.
While at it, he oversees all the executive functions which include – Resource Mobilization,
Communication, Finance, HRD, IT and Operations Excellence Initiative, etc…
Overall, he holds a work experience of more than 23 years which includes association with leading
multinationals such as Philips, ABB, Webex Communications (now CISCO), etc.
He holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Government College of
Engineering Karad, Master’s degree in Marketing from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management
Studies, and is a graduate of Advanced Management Program from Wharton Business School.
Their Story & Their Growth
The story of Akshaya Patra remains one of the most successful stories depicting hope, fairness,
justice and opportunity for all children.
Looking out of a window one day in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta, Swami Prabhupada saw a
group of children fighting with stray dogs over scraps of food. This heart breaking incident,
determined him to make sure that no child within a radius of ten miles from their centre would
go hungry. Since then, this principle had been adhered to by the ISKCON foundation.
In 1983, Madhu Pandit Dasa took over the activities of ISKCON, Bangalore and was also
responsible for the activities of the Trivandrum temple as well.
As the process of feeding the hungry continued regularly, the number of children began to
increase by every passing day as well. One day, on speaking to some of these children, Pandit
Dasa learnt that these kids either didn’t go to school or left early to make it to the temple for
lunch.
To make sure their education wasn’t affected, he decided to send food to the schools themselves.
In no time, they were sending food out to 1500 children in schools across Bangalore.
Soon, teachers and principals from other schools began writing in to ISKCON, asking them to
feed children at their school too. What was even more complimenting was that kids from non-
ISKCON supported schools had begun leaving to join schools that benefitted them with temple’s
food programme.
This also showed how urgent the issue of Hunger was!
By now they were feeding children at over a lakh schools, but had also begun to feel the pinch,
when it came to operations and management of the whole thing. The main concern was the lack
of vessels and vehicles to pack and transport the cooked food to the schools.
So Madhu Pandit Dasa discussed the idea with prominent personalities with whom he was in
touch with through the activities of the temple, and received help from people like Mohandas Pai,
Narayan & Sudha Murthy, Abhay Jain and many others.
Mohandas Pai stepped in by donating the first vehicle to deliver food, while Abhay Jain assured
to get more donors to further strengthen the programme.

In 2000, The Akshaya Patra Foundation formally born and started the mid-day meal programme
in Bangalore in Karnataka.
With a considerable amount of donations in place, they also introduced state-of-the-art resources
and technology to manage and maintain the quality and operations.
Soon they also partnered with the Government of India and various other State Governments and
their departments, to serve cooked meals at all Government schools.
Since then, there has been no looking back for them.
The lists of achievements that they have accomplished are far beyond anyone’s imagination.
Apart from helping the needy, the organization has also begun helping the environment by going
green and replacing their gas stoves with Oorja stoves, which use biomass pellets such as
processed organic waste such as banana peel, groundnut shells & other waste wood as fuel.
Within a span of 14 years, the Foundation has expanded its footprint to cover over 45 million
children in 10 states and 24 locations across India, with nearly 330 million meals cooked, delivered
and eaten every year.
Today, through the partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments, as
well as philanthropic donors and well-wishers; the organisation runs the world’s largest mid-day
meal programme to deliver a nutritious and hygienic school lunch.