Mangalore: ISKCON’s ‘Akshaya Patra’ Kitchen Feeds 25,000 Students Each Day
 
Pics: Ramesh Pandith
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (PS/CN)
 
Mangalore, Jul 7: Food is cooked for 25,000 students everyday with the help of modern technology in the kitchen. Work starts at 5 am and within four hours, rice and ‘sambar’ are ready for such a huge number of students. Not only this, all the food has to be packed and loaded on a vehicle to supply them to various schools in and around the city.

This is the routine job done by the staff at the ISKCON Akshaya Patra Prathistana located near Urva Market in the city.

ISKCON has undertaken the responsibility of realizing the ‘Akshara Dasoha’ project initiated by the central and state governments. In eight states, the mid day meal is being supplied to students of 8,126 schools. Five lac students from 2,439 schools in five districts of Karnataka are the beneficiaries of this scheme.
 
The ‘Akshaya Patra’ project was started in Dakshina Kannada district in 2006 and every year the number of schools has increased. Currently 25,200 students of 141 schools are provided with mid-day meals. Of these 2,800 children are from 14 schools in Bantwal taluk and the rest from in and around Mangalore city.
 
The Kitchen:
 
Cleanliness is given utmost priority in all processes like preparation, boiling, filling the vessels, and transportation. Half a ton of rice is cleaned in just an hour’s time with the help of a machine while yet another machine chops 300 kg vegetables in an equal amount of time. There is a big cold storage to preserve vegetables. No staff can enter the kitchen without wearing a cap on their head and without covering their mouth. This indicates that everyone is really concerned about providing hygienic food to the school children.
 
Cooking:
 
With four large rice cookers, 110 kg of rice can be prepared in just 20 minutes. There are two 1,200 litre capacity cookers to prepare sambar. As per the requirement of schools, rice, sambar, and curd packets, are directly shifted onto vehicles through conveyor belts. There are shelves to place three types of vessels. A locking system ensures that food does not overflow from the vessels.
 
Distribution:
 
Many institutions have donated free vehicles for this purpose. Nine vehicles reach the schools in different areas carrying meals at noon covering a maximum distance of 54 km. While returning after distribution, they collect the empty vessels from the previous day and take the orders for the next day. The schools teachers have no tension as they just have to place an order mentioning the quantity of food for the next day. Cleaning of vessels also need not be done.
 
Speaking to Daijiworld, Nandana Acharyadasa, in-charge of Akshaya Patra, Mangalore unit, said that there are 55 people working as staff for this noble cause. “Food is reached on time. All the drivers have been given mobile phones to make sure that they inform us in case of any problem with the vehicle or a traffic jam. There are demands from many schools. In the present kitchen, food can be prepared for up to 30,000 students. Vehicles move on nine routes carrying meals. ISCKON aspire to provide good education, food, and health,” he said.