Karnataka - Mangalore   

`Akshaya Patra' at Kavoor

Staff Correspondent

HAPPY MEAL: Students of the Government Primary School at Kavoor are happy to be served hot midday meals provided by the Akshaya Patra Foundation.

MANGALORE: The Mahabharata has it that Lord Krishna gave the "Akshaya Patra" to Draupadi when the Kauravas banished the Pandavas to live in exile for 14 years.

The "Akshaya Patra" is said to have given unlimited food to the Pandavas. Drawing inspiration from this concept is the Akshaya Patra Foundation of the International Society for Sri Krishna Consciousness, which provides midday meal to schoolchildren.

While the foundation started the "Akshaya Patra — unlimited food for life" programme with 1,500 students in Bangalore in July 2000, its managers would not have imagined that five years onwards, it would reach over 1 lakh students throughout the State.

According to Nama Nishta Das, local programme coordinator of the foundation, an estimated 63 per cent of the children in country go to sleep hungry every night. Similarly, an estimated 40 million children are out of school for various reasons, mostly economic, and India has the largest number of child labourers. The programme intends to address these problems in a phased manner.

Noting that the programme is operational in Hubli as well where 65,000 students are benefiting from it, Mr. Das said it is running successfully in other parts of India such as Mathura and Jaipur.

In Mangalore, the programme that was started on January 1, 2005, with 300 children now covers 5,600 children in 30 schools with a few other schools keen to join in.

Mr. Das said the government schools covered under the midday meal scheme are free to opt for the Akshaya Patra programme. The Government provides the amount earmarked for the scheme to the foundation, which subsidies its cost by around 30 per cent. Besides, the foundation ensures that the menu includes rice, sambar with vegetables and curds.

The food is cooked in a centralised kitchen at Kadri and loaded into custom-built vessels and distributed to different schools along three routes in the city using as many vehicles.

The foundation meets its operational costs from donations.

The district in-charge Minister, Jabbar Khan Honnali, will inaugurate this programme at the Government Higher Primary School, Kavoor, on Saturday. Mr. Das said the foundation has plans to extend it to other parts of the district as well. Donors can contact Mr. Das at Akshaya Patra Foundation, Krishna Kasturi, Arya Samaj Road, Mangalore 575003 (ph: 2443784).

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