happiness and food

Green, Yellow, and bright as White,

Veggie, Pulse and Rice is a delight..

It was an “Aha” moment for me when I got to know that a blog post written by me can feed one Akshaya Patra beneficiary for a whole year. Bloggers write for the love of writing and if that love could help feed one child, I think it’s the best possible reward for the post. The need for food to survive is impossible to emphasize and it is heart breaking to know that per a report published in 2010, an estimated 45 million children do not attend school in India just because the time invested in school could be used at working to help their families earn the daily bread.

Mid Day meals is an initiative aimed at increasing the enrollment at schools and helping promote the right to education to every single child. The incentive to this enrollment was a meal provided by the school. Statistics suggest that mid day meals are extremely effective to increase the rate from the strata of the society that is hovering around the poverty line and mostly below it. An enrollment at school means a free meal and a time away to invest in learning how to read and write.

Akshaya Patra has been an implementation partner with the mid day meal scheme and their efforts have fed 1.4 million children in 2014 as against to 1,500 children in the year 2000. This year during January, VT walked 100kms to raise funds to help weaker sections of the society. Along with him, as a part of his support crew, I had a chance to see the villages of South India and the reach of the mid day meal scheme. I have personally seen barefooted children walking towards the school in the hope of getting a meal. While I write this, I can feel the responsibility that Akshaya Patra has by working towards feeding the children of the country. While I do want that no child of India should ever sleep with a stomach that did not even get a grain of rice, I also want that the meal that these children are fed is nutritious and edible. Every now and then there is news reporting the death of children after eating meals, sometimes it’s poisonous and sometimes it’s just not the right thing to eat. Children are too innocent to say NO to a meal that’s offered to them so it becomes the responsibility of the organizations that bring food to ensure that it’s safe to consume.

A little research reveals that Akshaya Patra has maintained hygiene, nutrition and all other quality standards to ensure that what children eat is what they should eat. Corporates join hands by providing food transportation vehicles and the financial support which is a positive thing. What I think is equally important is ensuring that all over India there is more seriousness around mid day meals.

• Regular “surprise” inspection of schools to ensure that children enrolled are studying and getting a meal
• Checks to ensure the money that flows in from the government is reaching the right recipient and punishing those who are guilty of corruption
• Setting up standard measures to ensure what is cooked and how it is cooked. Something like – the utensils used, the size of kitchen, the storage space, the cleanliness of the kitchen, the gloves and head caps to be used by the chef etc.
• Regular “surprise” inspection of kitchens and to check the adherence to safety and hygiene norms
• Use a carrot and stick approach

Akshay Patra could also pass on their quality measures to other not-for-profit organizations and help them on-board on this journey of feeding children. Together we can help India become a “hunger free” nation. It’s up to us to see that a “Healthy Mind resides in a Healthy Body” and a “Healthy Nation Resides in a Healthy Mind”

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

This post is a response to Daily Post’s Photography 101 and the theme is A Pop of Color.

I am participating in National Blog Posting Month – NaBloPoMo, and this is Post #17, a pledge to write daily during November to hone my skills, challenge myself, and taking this blog to the next level. Wish me luck and share ideas that you would want to read!