EXTENSION PROGRAMS
REPORT ON EXTENSION PROGRAMME 2021-22
Date: 12th JAN 2022.
Subject: REPORT ON EXTENSION PROGRAMME.
Place: Akshaya Patra, ISKCON- Rajajinagar.
Introduction about Akshaya Patra
Akshaya Patra is a non-profit organization that aims to counter classroom hunger and aid in the education of children. Akshaya Patra provides nutritious meals to underprivileged people across the nation. The organization started in 2000 and currently feeds 1.9 million children every day across india.
About the visit
The visit for the students of New Horizon College Of Engineering was held on 12th JAN 2022 by the Department of Computer Application. Students were taken to Akshaya Patra, ISKCON by a bus provided by the college. It was a half day visit by more than 30 students of 1st sem MCA along with 2 faculty members. The journey began at 0930 hrs and we touched down at 1030 hrs. Further Mr. Praveen Krishna escorted us to the conference room, briefed us about the infrastructure of the kitchen, how chores are done, IoT implementation at Akshaya Patra, also amused us with some statistical figures of per day meals provided and the quantity of food prepared at the kitchen.
The Mega kitchen
Day at the kitchen starts at 0230 hrs, and by 0630 hrs meals are ready to be dispatched to government schools and government aided schools. The management and coordination between these few hours from cooking to packing is what makes Akshaya Patra one of its kind. The well designed kitchen helps in a quicker service. The building consists of two floors, ground floor; where cooking takes place, first floor; preprocesses like chopping and dicing of vegetables happen. The grains, vegetables and all the other ingredients used are handpicked, and very well inspected before it reaches the cooking chamber. Akshaya Patra is known for nutritious and hygienic supply of meals. When asked further about the grains, Mr. Praveen said “Rice and lentils are supplied by the farmers directly from the farm. Even before the seeds are sowed in soil, we test the soil, analyze the nutrient content, composition, and other characteristics”.
Akshaya Patra supports local farming and local stores, they don’t just feed the ones in need but also economically help local stores by getting their supplies from these stores.
Preparation of the meals
On the ground floor, the kitchen is equipped with 4 rice cooking chambers, each capable of cooking 150 Kg of rice in just 15 minutes. These huge chambers have two separate valves, one of them supplies hot water and the other supplies steam. Per day Akshaya Patra produces 5.5tons of cooked rice. With every 90 Kg of rice, 10 Kg of artificial rice is added to enhance the nutrient content and provide more proteins and vitamins to the growing body and mind of children. Simultaneously Sambar is being prepared in 3 different boilers, each with the capacity to cook 1000 Liters of sambar in a span of 45 minutes.
The first floor is dedicated for dicing and chopping of vegetables, making of ragi balls, and a cold storage area. As the meals have to be served for thousands of people, chopping vegetables manually will slow down the process. Special vegetable chopping machines are installed at Akshaya Patra to cut 100 kgs- 200 kgs of vegetables in just 1 hr. Beside the machine, manually chopping is done by the employees starting early in the morning. Akshaya Patra has a large cold store area to store dairy products, vegetables and fruits. This storage unit has a temperature and humidity controller. The temperature inside the storage unit is maintained at 5 degree celsius. Another customized machinery used by Akshaya Patra is, ragi ball maker. Ragi ball maker produces around 250 ragi balls in 45 minutes. This machinery has simplified the task of making ragi balls, all it takes is ingredients and electricity, and after 45 minutes, we are left with plenty of ragi balls ready to serve.
The entire kitchen uses a steam cooking method to prepare the meal. It is believed that food cooked in a streaming method doesn’t lose much of its nutritional value during cooking. To power the steamers, diesel oil is used.
IoT and outsourcing of meals
In the present technological era, Akshaya Patra has also adapted and embraced the technology for the betterment of efficient and quicker ways to prepare and outsource the meal. Kitchen has implemented smart temperature checks to have a contactless experience of checking the food temperature. The vehicles used in transportation of the food are embedded with a GPS system to track the movement of vehicles and to ensure meals reach the school on time. These vehicles are also specially customized, a structure similar to honeycomb which helps in loading the maximum number of containers and closely kept containers also help with better insulation to keep the food hot and fresh.
Utensils used during transportation of food are high grade stainless steel utensils which help in keeping the food piping hot until it reaches the destination. Keeping the hygiene aspect in mind, these utensils are cleaned using hot steam. This eliminates the slightest chance of having bacteria on the containers. The food is prepared at 90°c, packed at 70°c and children enjoy the meal served hot, ranging from 60°c-65°c. Children are often surprised once a week with sweet delicacies, sometimes twice a week. This surprise element makes all the sweet tooth students visit school every day hoping it’s a sweet day.
Objectives
The Objective of Akshaya Patra :
- Akshaya Patra is focused on eliminating classroom hunger and attracting more children to schools and ensuring to keep them in school by feeding them a filling, nutritious mid-day meal, every school day. This is in partnership with the Government of India and all the various State Governments.
- Hygiene and cleanliness are of utmost importance in each of the Akshaya Patra kitchens, be it centralized or decentralized.
- Hunger and Illiteracy are India’s two major challenges. Hunger is an obstacle to child’s health, education and survival, and to bring down the malnutrition case in India, Akshaya Patra is working day and night to help our nation overcome the insufficiency to feed the ones in need.
- Akshaya Patra has also benefited many with employment, over 250 active staff are currently working at Akshaya Patra with a good number of female employees.
Student’s take away from the visit; Conclusion
- We got an insight about how technology is being implemented and used in the food industry. May it be GPS to track vehicles or use of Six Sigma.
- The importance of management and coordination while cooperating with the leading industries and investors. It is important to have good professional relationships around the industries.
- This kind of intercultural collaboration allows students to offer fresh perspectives and expertise to these organizations.
- Not only on academic level, but Akshaya Patra helps in the wholesome personality development of every student that has interacted or had been connected with the organization.
- The visit at Akshaya Patra was really beneficial for the students as it helped them to understand, there are still ways you can grow and blossom into a better human being or as a person.
