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Akshaya Patra Foundation designs mid-day meals to address hunger & malnutrition
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Wednesday, 24 February, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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Akshaya Patra Foundation which is one of the implementing partners of the Government’s Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme is ensuring to address classroom hunger and malnutrition while incentivising education and curbing dropout rates in beneficiary schools.
Shridhar Venkat, CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said, “With over 11.59 crore children enrolled under it, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is one of the most extensive child nutrition programmes, globally. It enables access to an adequate amount of nutritious food is directly linked to physical and cognitive development and well-being across the life cycle particularly during childhood. Serving as many children as it does, food safety becomes one of the most crucial aspects of the Scheme’s implementation.”
“The foundation began by feeding 1500 children in one city and served over 1.8 million children across the country every school day as of 2020. We upholds the responsibility of providing safe, hygienic, and nutritious meals to children. Measures are taken at every stage to ensure that the highest standards of safety and efficiency are met,” he added.
Raw materials are procured only from credible vendors and the organisation resorts to Supplier Quality Management System (SQMS) to ensure that the best raw materials are procured. First-in First-out (FIFO) method is adopted for perishable commodities. Cooking temperature is checked and recorded at periodic intervals to ensure the good quality of meals.
Currently, the foundation operates 51 centralised kitchens across 12 states and two union territories of the country. State-of-the-art technology equips these kitchens to prepare thousands of hot, safe, nutritious, and tasty meals in a matter of hours while adhering to the highest food safety standards. After cooking, the food is packed into stainless steel containers and transported via conveyor belts to be loaded into custom made food distribution vehicles. These vehicles safely deliver cooked food to schools according to a strict schedule. Post-delivery quality check processes like audits and feedback is a mandatory and vital part of the food safety protocol.
The foundation’s kitchens are Food Safety and Management System (FSMS), 5S (Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardise, and Sustain), and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) compliant. Its food safety measures are also inclusive of safety and hygiene protocols mandated for all kitchen staff, such as wearing safety gear at all times, frequent hand sanitisation, and health and safety sessions conducted regularly. Additionally, the kitchens have well-trained cooks and production supervisors to manage and supervise the entire process. To ensure food quality is maintained, quality checks are done by the quality officers in each kitchen.
The organisation has also established state-of-the-art Food Safety and Quality Control Labs (FSQC Labs), mini food labs, and cluster food labs to facilitate the evaluation of products, ranging from raw materials to cooked meals that are part of the MDM processes. There are a total of 25 such labs in various locations of the country. The foundation’s FSQC labs are in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), and Jigani (Karnataka), and one mobile lab in Vizag (Andhra Pradesh).
“Reaching millions of children across the country, the Government’s MDM Scheme is one of the most essential child nutrition programmes. Bringing as many children as possible under the Scheme's ambit will also mean continuing to provide safe and nutritious meals to them, boost their nutritional status, and keep them in school. Alongside the Government, implementing partners such as Akshaya Patra play a crucial role in setting high standards for food safety so that the children of India have seamless access to both, nutrition and education,” said Venkat.
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