THIS KITCHEN NEVER SLEEPS

THIS KITCHEN NEVER SLEEPS WHEN THE PANDEMIC SHUT SCHOOLS, THE WORLD’S LARGEST NOT-FOR-PROFIT MID-DAY MEAL PROVIDER CHANGED COURSE FOR A NEW CHALLENGE—COVID RELIEF

- M.G. ARUN

BEFORE THE ONSET OF COVID-19, THE Bengaluru-based Akshaya Patra Foundation ran the world’s largest not-for-profit midday meal programme, reaching out to 1.8 million children from over 19,000 schools in 12 states and two Union territories. But as the pandemic ravaged the country and schools shut, it was time to change direction. With job losses, hunger and disease all around, the foundation decided to use its extensive resources for an equally challenging cause—Covid relief.

“We quickly diverted our strategy from ‘food for education’ to ‘food for relief ’,” says Shridhar Venkat, CEO, Akshaya Patra Foundation. The idea was to reach across to the needy in a three-pronged manner: distributing four cooked meals a day to Covid patients, migrant labourers, and the jobless; giving out ration kits that contained 42 meals for an adult, consisting of five kilos of rice, a kilo of tur dal, half a litre of cooking oil, spices, sambar and rasam powder, and some vegetables; and distributing ‘happiness kits’ for children, containing biscuits, ragi flour, dental kits and sanitary pack for girls, and so on.

The foundation ensures that the essential groceries in the food relief kits are based on the local palate of the regions where they are distributed. Recently, Akshaya Patra started a Covid Relief Feeding Centre at KR Market in Bengaluru, where 1,000 free cooked meals are provided to Covid frontline warriors, industrial labourers and the poor every day. It is planning to start 3-4 similar feeding centres in other parts of the city.