• Akshaya Patra Foundation’s state-of-the-art kitchen opens at Mahadevapura
• To feed 20,000 school children from 154 schools in Mysuru and Mandya

Mandya: Lunch at Government schools is steaming hot rice and sambar, courtesy not-for-profit Akshaya Patra Foundation in partnership with the Central Government’s Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS). 

Starting with 1,500 students in 2000, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme run by Akshaya Patra Foundation has evolved to become the world’s largest. It now aims to increase its reach to five million students by 2020. The Foundation is an extended arm of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). 

This morning, Akshaya Patra Foundation inaugurated a modern kitchen in Mahadevapura, located on the Mysuru-Mandya border. The state-of-the-art facility is capable of cooking meals to over 20,000 schoolchildren in Mysuru and Mandya. 

The Foundation has also taken the initiative of feeding 600 children from Anandalwar High School in Mahadevapura in its own capacity. The facility was inaugurated by Srirangapatna MLA Ravindra Srikantaiah.

The kitchen and its cooking system is so advanced that both ragi mudde and roti can be prepared. It is a zero-effluent discharge unit with all the waste treated using an advanced Effluent Treatment Plant through which biogas for food preparation and manure is prepared. 

The centralised kitchen will serve freshly cooked, nutritious and tasty mid-day meals to children. Through the new kitchen, Akshaya Patra will serve children of 154 schools in Mandya and Mysuru districts. 

Adhering to the practice of serving food in accordance to the local palate, Akshaya Patra Foundation will be serving bisibelebath, rice, sambar, upma, payasam, kesaribath, vegetable kootu (sabji), curd, khara pongal and cornflakes in a  cyclic manner. 

Chairman of Akshaya Patra Foundation Madhu Pandit Dasa said that mid-day meals stimulates and motivates children to come to school regularly and continue their education. 

“It has always been our endeavour to reach out and serve more children. The new kitchen will help us reach out to 20,000 children in the region with wholesome food and bring a positive change in                                                   their lives.” 

The area of Akshaya Patra’s Mahadevapura kitchen is predominantly inhabited by farming community and the kitchen will help the Foundation reach out to children of this community with nutritious mid-day meals. 

This initiative will contribute to the Foundation’s community development efforts in this region. 

The setting up of this kitchen will also translate into employment opportunities for the local, especially women and youth. 

The kitchen is equipped with a roti-making machine, cold storage, an effluent treatment plant (ETP) for wastewater treatment and a blender for  rice fortification. 

Rice is fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to it that adheres to the grains or spraying on the surface of ordinary rice grains in several layers with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.