Sri Rajnath Singh Commends the Service of Akshaya Patra in providing Mid-day Meals

LUCKNOW, India - Dec. 29, 2015 - PRLog -- Sri Rajnath Singh, HonourableMinister of Home Affairs, Government of India visited The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s kitchen facility in Lucknow on Sunday, December 27, 2015. Sri Ashutosh Tandon, (MLA, Lucknow East), Mr Sharda Pratap Shukla, (MLA, Sarojini Nagar) in Lucknow shared the dais on the occasion.

Akshaya Patra implements the mid-day meal programme in partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Government of India to benefit children studying in the Government schools.

Sri Rajnath Singh also took a tour of the kitchen where he witnessed operations of the centralised kitchen facility. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rajnath Singh commended Akshaya Patra’s noble service to society in eradicating hunger by providing nutritious mid-day meal to lakhs of school children across the country and

appreciated the efficiency in reaching out to more school children.

Thanking Sri Rajnath Singh on the occasion, Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation said, “I am grateful to the Honourable Home Minister Sri Rajnath Singh for graciously consenting to visit our centralised kitchen facility and participating in feeding mid-day meals to school children at Lucknow and his constant support through the years. With his continued support and encouragement, we are confident that we can reach out to more children and serve them with nutritious mid-day meals every school day.”

The state-of-the-art kitchen in Lucknow is spread across two acres of land which is allotted by the State Government. This is the second centralised kitchen setup by Akshaya Patra in the state. The Caterpillar Foundation has funded for the entire set up of this mechanised kitchen infrastructure. The kitchen has the capacity to produce 60,000 rotis, 10,000 litres of dal and 7 tonnes of cooked rice within two hours. The automated kitchen is equipped to achieve high standards of quality and hygiene in all processes.

The Lucknow kitchen is currently serving 74,000 school children in 758 schools. Akshaya Patra plans to expand the reach to about 1 lakh children in the near future.

About Akshaya Patra Foundation: The Akshaya Patra Foundation (www.akshayapatra.org), is a non-profit organization headquartered in Bengaluru, India, is the world’s largest (NGO run) mid-day meal programme. Akshaya Patra effectively implements Mid-Day Meal Scheme with a vision that ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’ With a mission to reach 5 million children by 2020, the Foundation today serves mid-day meals to over 1.4 million children from over 10,845 Government and Government Aided Schools across 10 states in India. The programme achieves this scale by leveraging technology. Their innovations have become a product of various studies across the world. Akshaya Patra will continue to serve quality, hygienic and nutritious food to school children every day in its endeavour to eliminate classroom hunger in India.

http://www.akshayapatra.org

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