Donate for Charity to End Classroom Hunger

Donate for Charity to End Classroom Hunger
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a 15-year-old NGO, started with a motive to
eradicate classroom hunger and provide opportunities to underserved Indian
children.
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The Akshaya Patra Foundation (C) Copyright (2015) All Rights Reserved

NGO in Uttar Pradesh
Childhood is considered to be the best part in life. However, it may not be
completely true for all children in India, as a major part of them belong to
economically disadvantaged families. These children are unable to enjoy their
childhood, but are also forced to sacrifice their education and take up
responsibilities at a young age. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a leading NGO in
India has been trying to help children by delivering freshly cooked meals to
schools. The organisation started its efforts by feeding just 1,500 school children
in Bengaluru in 2000. Today, NGO runs kitchens in 24 locations in 10 Indian
states, including Uttar Pradesh. The NGO has two kitchens that prepare the midday
meal in Uttar Pradesh. The NGO in Uttar Pradeshfeeds 150,663 children
in 1,983 Government schools and owes its success to people who donate for
charity.
For a long time, India has been trying to wipe out child labour and illiteracy from
its soil. Today, 74.04% of Indians are literate. Similarly, now only 43.53 lakh
children are working compared to 1.26 crore in 2001. Nearly 1.4 million Indian
children are back in school, due to the free lunches served by Akshaya Patra. The
Foundation initiated distributing these free lunches to school children 15 years ago
and their kitchen run by the NGO in Uttar Pradesh is their fourth in the country.
Mid-day meal in Uttar Pradesh was started in Vrindavan in August 2004. With the
help of people who donate for charity, the organisation opened its Lucknow
kitchen on 15 March, 2015.
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The Akshaya Patra Foundation (C) Copyright (2015) All Rights Reserved

Mid-Day Meal in Uttar Pradesh
Like its school lunch programme in Uttar Pradesh, the organisation hopes to
expand its roots to different parts of India so that more children will get the
opportunity to learn and enjoy their childhood. Of the total of 24 kitchens, 22
including the two kitchens run by the NGO in Uttar Pradesh are centralised and
can prepare around 100,000 mid-day meal in Uttar Pradesh in a day. The
remaining two are decentralised and are managed by women Self-Help Groups
(SHGs). The best part of centralised kitchens is that they reduce human contact
with meals and thus help improve food safety. The ISO 22000:2005 certified
kitchen in Vrindavan feeds freshly cooked mid-day meals to 139,262 Government
school children, while the Lucknow kitchen, equipped with state-of-the-art
cooking technology, prepares nutritious meals for 11,401 children studying in
109 Government schools. The number of meals is increasing and there is no
doubt that people who supported the charity by donations have played a major
role in the organisation’s success. People who wish to donate can choose
different options including donating any kitchen equipment or the blue bus used
to transport food to schools. Interestingly, donating an amount greater than
Rs.500 can help the donor to get tax exemptions.
Akshaya Patra wants to provide opportunities to 5 million school children by
2020. Join us and donate for charity today so that we can make our children’s
life more enjoyable and memorable.
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The Akshaya Patra Foundation (C) Copyright (2015) All Rights Reserved