VENUE: Akshaya Patra .Mangalore
STAFF IN CHARGE
1. Prof.Joyson Prenky Cardosa,HOD
2. Prof.Ranjith Bhat C
TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS PARTICIPATED: 36
OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY
• To provide the students practical exposure to the functioning of the service unit kitchen of Akshaya Patra
• To acquaint the students with the formulation and implementation of mid-day meal programme for school-going children
OUTCOME OF THE ACTIVITY
• The students understood in detail the functioning of the service unit kitchen and steps involved in the preparation of mid-day meals and the quality analysis of the food prepared from a safety of view
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY
An educational visit to Akshaya Patra kitchen in Benjanapadav was organized on 30th August 2025, by the department of PG studies in Master of Social Work for 1st Year students. The AKSHAYA PATRA foundation is a non-profitable organization working with an aim to fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India. The Foundation strives to eliminate classroom hunger by implementing the Mid-day Meal Programme. This is achieved by implementing Mid Day Meal scheme in government and government-aided schools. The goal is not only to fight hunger but also to encourage students of primary and high school to attend classes on regular basis. The Akshaya Patra targets primary as well as high school students. The service kitchen unit provides mid-day meals to schools in the vicinities of Benjanapadav. The foundation provides calorie and protein-rich food and helps improve the nutritional status of school-going kids.
The kitchen layout has cleaning equipment to remove foreign bodies from the rice utilized for consumption purposes, equipment for cutting of vegetables, a storage area for dry ingredients, cold storage, and a cooking area. For the preparation of the meals, fresh vegetables are procured on a daily basis. After procurement, the sorting of vegetables is done and all the vegetables are cleansed with potable water .The vegetables are stored in cold storage below 5°C to retain the freshness of the product. The dry ingredients are procured from the local vendors on weekly basis.
The boilers and other types of equipment are steam sterilized before and after cooking The cooking process begins at 4 a.m. in the morning. Sathwik, nutritious food is prepared. The procedure begins with washing the rice, pulses, and other ingredients. Large boilers of varying capacities are used to cook rice, sambhar or rasam, vegetable sabzi, pulao, khichdi etc. The prepared foods are then filled in containers at a temperature of 80- 90°C which is sufficient to feed 650 students in a school on average across 15000 schools. These food containers are transported to schools through vehicles containing separate racks to maintain the temperature of food and avoid spilling. The temperature of food is checked before delivering it to schools to ensure a supply of hot and nutritious food to all the children. Every vehicle has a batch number allotted which is helpful in case of emergencies.
The kitchen follows all the FSSAI rules and ISO rules. The prepared food samples are also sent for laboratory testing twice a year to assure their quality. Also, a health inspector from Primary Health Care Centre visits the unit monthly to ensure hygienic food preparation practices and also ensure providing a healthy, hygienic, and nutritious meal.
The visit was really helpful in understanding the working of the Akshaya Patra Programme and helped us to gain better knowledge about the Mid Day Meal Programme.VENUE: Akshaya Patra .Mangalore
STAFF IN CHARGE
1. Prof.Joyson Prenky Cardosa,HOD
2. Prof.Ranjith Bhat C
TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS PARTICIPATED: 36
OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY
• To provide the students practical exposure to the functioning of the service unit kitchen of Akshaya Patra
• To acquaint the students with the formulation and implementation of mid-day meal programme for school-going children
OUTCOME OF THE ACTIVITY
• The students understood in detail the functioning of the service unit kitchen and steps involved in the preparation of mid-day meals and the quality analysis of the food prepared from a safety of view
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY
An educational visit to Akshaya Patra kitchen in Benjanapadav was organized on 30th August 2025, by the department of PG studies in Master of Social Work for 1st Year students. The AKSHAYA PATRA foundation is a non-profitable organization working with an aim to fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India. The Foundation strives to eliminate classroom hunger by implementing the Mid-day Meal Programme. This is achieved by implementing Mid Day Meal scheme in government and government-aided schools. The goal is not only to fight hunger but also to encourage students of primary and high school to attend classes on regular basis. The Akshaya Patra targets primary as well as high school students. The service kitchen unit provides mid-day meals to schools in the vicinities of Benjanapadav. The foundation provides calorie and protein-rich food and helps improve the nutritional status of school-going kids.
The kitchen layout has cleaning equipment to remove foreign bodies from the rice utilized for consumption purposes, equipment for cutting of vegetables, a storage area for dry ingredients, cold storage, and a cooking area. For the preparation of the meals, fresh vegetables are procured on a daily basis. After procurement, the sorting of vegetables is done and all the vegetables are cleansed with potable water .The vegetables are stored in cold storage below 5°C to retain the freshness of the product. The dry ingredients are procured from the local vendors on weekly basis.
The boilers and other types of equipment are steam sterilized before and after cooking The cooking process begins at 4 a.m. in the morning. Sathwik, nutritious food is prepared. The procedure begins with washing the rice, pulses, and other ingredients. Large boilers of varying capacities are used to cook rice, sambhar or rasam, vegetable sabzi, pulao, khichdi etc. The prepared foods are then filled in containers at a temperature of 80- 90°C which is sufficient to feed 650 students in a school on average across 15000 schools. These food containers are transported to schools through vehicles containing separate racks to maintain the temperature of food and avoid spilling. The temperature of food is checked before delivering it to schools to ensure a supply of hot and nutritious food to all the children. Every vehicle has a batch number allotted which is helpful in case of emergencies.
The kitchen follows all the FSSAI rules and ISO rules. The prepared food samples are also sent for laboratory testing twice a year to assure their quality. Also, a health inspector from Primary Health Care Centre visits the unit monthly to ensure hygienic food preparation practices and also ensure providing a healthy, hygienic, and nutritious meal.
The visit was really helpful in understanding the working of the Akshaya Patra Programme and helped us to gain better knowledge about the Mid Day Meal Programme.