Mid-day meal goes hi-tech

Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest NGO-run school meal program that serves over 1.4 million children daily in over 10,770 schools from 24 kitchens in ten states in India.

With contributions coming in a big way from India Inc, this mid-day meal has now gone hi-tech, reducing human touch to the most minimal. Installing machines to make food, right from washing, sorting to cooking, the one at Vrindavan churns out 1.2 tonnes of curry in under an hour with the cooking staff, donned in yellow aprons, running the spotlessly clean, high-tech kitchen, hoping to provide a fillip to the midday meal scheme.

Out of a large machine, rolls out thousands of fluffy, hot rotis, while the aproned men add spices to vegetables. Broths or dals are cooked in giant steel pots in the three-storey kitchen. And the food moves seamlessly on chutes and conveyor belts. The rice stored in silos on the terrace flows to an industrial tub for washing before heading into the pots on the bottom floor. Nearby a machine cuts up tonnes of vegetables. Once in steel containers, the meals are packed into vans which navigate pot-holed roads to reach 2,000 government-run schools in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura region.

This fantastic venture receives subsidised produce and government grants for its operations as well as corporate donations, with each meal costing Rs.9 to make. For many children, this meal, probably the only one in their entire day, is the only enticement to come and study. This venture shows, if one has the right vision and aim in mind, money will come in. Akshaya Patra is indeed one charity we all Indians should be proud of.