Akshaya Patra Foundation

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The Akshaya Patra Foundation
File:The Akshaya Patra Foundation Logo.png
Founded2000
TypeNon Profit Organisation
Location
ProductsMid Day Meals
Revenue
Websitehttp://www.akshayapatra.org/ https://foodforeducation.org

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit trust of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Bangalore. It operates Midday Meal Scheme (a school lunch programme) in India.[1]

Mid Day Meal program[edit]

Akshaya Patra is the largest partner of the Union Government of India to implement the Mid Day Meal scheme in the government run schools of India. The scheme is based on a public-private partnership.[1]

Use of public money for faith based nutrition decisions[edit]

lacto-vegetarian and Vegetarianism are one of the four tenets of ISKCON, that runs APF.[2]

Indians who follow a Vegetarian diet in India on the basis of their religious faith based believes, consider meat and eggs as polluted. They neither eat at places with different dietary practices nor share their meal with them. Religious groups Brahmins, Lingayats, and Jains are Lactovegetarian groups and claim that consuming eggs hurts their sentiments.[3]

The objective of the mid day meals scheme is to deliver nutritious meals to students. While the agenda of faith-based organizations and Hindutva groups is imposing vegetarianism on their followers. According to the experts this agenda is antithetical to the objective of the mid day meals scheme.[3]

According to data collected in 2018, most states governed by the right wing Hindutva, Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies do not provide eggs in meals. Some of these states have the lowest nutritional indicators. Akshaya Patra Foundation had been contracted by the government to provide midday meals but they do not provide eggs, citing their religious beliefs. The meals provided by APF are vegetarian and do not include eggs, garlic or onion.[3]

For every Rs 7.40 Akshaya Patra spends per lunch per day under the mid-day meal scheme, the government provides Rs 4.38.[4] Objections have been raised on religious considerations being part of the government food security scheme in detriment to children's food and nutritional rights.

Organisation[edit]

APF is run by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Bangalore. The organisation was established in 2000.[1]

Irregularities in the foundation's workings[edit]

In 2020, four of the independent trustees of APF resigned alleging misuse of funds of the foundation and governance issues in the APF.

  1. Former Infosys leader T.V. Mohandas Pai;
  2. advisor to Manipal education and medical group Abhay Jain;
  3. former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan and
  4. co-founder of ChrysCapital Raj P. Kondur[5]

These trustees had alleged that the chairman of APF, Madhu Pandit Dasa, and his supporters on the board were targeting the audit committee that was looking into the allegations of the misuse of funds. According to the trustees, the chairman and his supporters were doing this to resist transparency. In the years around 2020, the cost of a meal that APF provided had shot up by at least 5₹ in comparison to the other NGOs. This increase in cost was being investigated.[6]

Other Initiatives[edit]

The Akshaya Patra kitchens produce about 350 kilograms of organic waste each day.[7] To reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, the foundation has set up biogas plants in some of its kitchens. This initiative started with the centralized kitchens at Bellary and Vasanthapura (Bengaluru) on Earth Day (April 22) 2016 [8] and now extends to six kitchens across the country.[9] The biogas plants, with a capacity to process 1 tonne per day (TPD) of organic waste, generate 120 to 150 m3 of biogas the equivalent of 30 kilograms of LPG.[10] This gas is consumed in the kitchen's cooking operations and saves APF INR 38,500 per month.[8] This translates to savings of about 10% in total energy consumption required for cooking.[7]

APF has installed of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems at some of its kitchens. Based on the weather these systems produce 80-100 units of electricity per day and this power's the facility's daytime energy requirement e.g. the Bengaluru plant generates 10 kW of power and this is entirely consumed by the facility, whereas the Surat plant generates 12 kW of power with some of the surplus power being fed back to the grid for a credit.[7]

After the COVID-19 lockdown was announced, Akshaypatra began a food program to feed the migrant workers. They provided cooked food as well as dry grocery kits [11][12]

Awards[edit]

In 2019, APF received the BBC’s Global Food Champion Award.[13]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Akshaya Patra is implementation of the mid-day meal programme". Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Bryant, Edwin Francis. Ekstrand, Maria. (2004). The Hare Krishna movement the postcharismatic fate of a religious transplant. Columbia University Press. OCLC 748865897.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jain, Mahima (26 February 2022). "Faith vs. nutrition: India's school meals program walks on eggshells". Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  4. ↑ "Are Akshaya Patra Kitchens What They are Made Out to Be?". The Wire. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "Explainer: The Allegations Against Akshaya Patra, and Why a Probe Is Needed". The Wire. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  6. ↑ "Storm in Akshaya Patra's teacup: Trustees tell TNM why they resigned". The News Minute. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Kulkarni, Rajesh (21 August 2017). "Akshaya Patra: Transforming Organic Waste into Clean Energy - Clean Future". Clean Future. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Attri, Ravinder (28 April 2016). "Akshaya Patra adopts a new organic waste to biogas system". Newshour Press. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  9. ↑ "This Hyderabad start-up helps you turn your kitchen waste into a biogas". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  10. ↑ Madhav, N. (24 June 2015). "IICT's waste-to-biogas tech draws good response". Business Standard India. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  11. ↑ "2 crore meals served to vulnerable communities: Akshaya Patra Foundation". Deccan Herald. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "Akshaya Patra undertakes relief feeding to support government's efforts during COVID-19 outbreak". The Statesman. 28 March 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  13. ↑ "The Food Chain Global Champion Award goes to School Meals Project in India". BBC World Service.

External links[edit]

Template:Gandhi Peace Prize laureates

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