Meeting with Akshaya Patra!

After travelling to Bangalore, we got to meet the Akshaya Patra Board Members when they came to Singapore a few days later. By meeting them, we were able to see that the work we were doing in the field is based on their direction and mandate for working with a number of national partners so Akshaya Patra can continue to support its mission.

The board presented the kitchen model in the context of nationally established systems instead of just summarising our earlier observations. They provided an overview of the government's and Akshaya Patra's partnership in delivering the PM POSHAN (Mid-Day Meal) Programme, which ensures that every schoolchild has access to daily meals prepared by Akshaya Patra through a controlled supply chain. This clarified how government alignment enables the foundation to operate reliably across different regions.

The nature of partnerships related directly to the impact. While there was a single local kitchen in the example we observed, the board shared how this was replicated, along with decentralized kitchens in areas that were not able to support a centralized kitchen, within multiple states. Using Karnataka and Gujarat as examples of the benefits of coordinating multiple kitchens to serve hundreds of thousands of students across thousands of schools produced a better understanding of how the Bangalore Kitchen was one of a larger system instead of being an isolated success.

The most powerful part of hearing from a co-founder is that Akshaya Patra was started from a mother's efforts to feed hungry people at festivals. As the organization grew, the desire to help became evident, and the co-founder's determination to continue to feed children who would otherwise go hungry led to the organization feeding millions of children each day. While we saw how much has changed in their vision of providing food, it was necessary to first see the small problem and be dedicated to solving it to effect substantial change.

We also hope that the Akshaya Patra team will return to Singapore in the future, as continued engagement would allow us to strengthen relationships, learn more from their experiences, and explore how we can further support and collaborate with their mission.