Akshaya Patra goes corporate

Akshaya Patra goes corporate
Subir Roy / Chennai/ Bangalore January 15, 2008
Public private partnership mid-day meal programme to go fast forward.

The midday meal programme of Akshaya Patra Foundation, created under the inspiration of Iskcon, Bangalore and Mohandas Pai of Infosys in his personal capacity, has in seven years become an enormous success and prompted its leaders to chalk out a plan to dramatically take it forward.

The programme, which presently feeds 838,000 school children a day in six states through a highly successful model of public-private partnership, has decided to set itself a dramatic new target and bump up its visibility among corporates so as to raise vastly greater sums to take it fast forward.

Akshaya Patra Foundation, chaired by Madhu Pandit Dasa of Iskcon Bangalore — Pai is a trustee — will organsie a conclave of 200 CEOs in Bangalore on February 1 to showcase its work. N R Narayana Murthy will deliver the keynote address.

The aim is to raise consciousness and resources to achieve the target of 2 million meals a day by 2011, by which time it will have cumulatively served since 2000 a billion meals.

“This is a public-private partnership which is publicly-funded and privately-managed with the use of as much technology as possible,” says Pai. Through this “we wish to create a scalable model with the largest impact at the least per capita cost which others can replicate.”

To meet the 2011 goal, Akshaya Patra needs Rs 215 crore. Of this Rs 95 crore will be needed to build 10 more kitchens (it already has 11) costing Rs 9.5 crore each. These are uniquely designed massive setups which employ close to 200 each and can feed 100,000 children a day.

The remaining Rs 120 crore will be needed to meet running costs. The operating cost per meal is Rs 4.02 in the south and Rs 5 in the north (average Rs 4.38). State governments contribute Rs 2.56 per meal by supplying rations and the rest come from private contributions.

The foundation began by raising a crore in 2001-02 which went up to Rs 4 crore in four years. But in the last three years the amount raised privately has been more than doubling every year. This year Akshaya Patra Foundation will raise Rs 67 crore.

Pandit Dasa explains the sudden jump thus, “Initially corporate were observing us. When they saw our commitment, operations and governance, collections began to gallop.” Right now 85 per cent comes from corporates and 15 per cent from individuals, 80 per cent of donors contributing less than Rs 10,000 each. Akshaya Patra now has 2,300 employees who are led by 12 operational heads from Iskcon, Bangalore. But it has plans to recruit MBAs who can make its marketing professional. Pandit Dasa is optimistic about this and feels that the enrichment will be two-way. “Once you work for a social cause you will get a greater sense of purpose in life.”

To make itself presentable to corporates the foundation has got A C Nielsen to do an audit of the impact of the programme on children. The audit reveals that school attendance and classroom performance have improved post-programme. The foundation’s accounts are audited by KPMG.

“We are approaching corporates not just for funds but for participation also,” says Pandit Dasa. Corporates on their part are also encouraging their employees to give. Cisco and AOL match all that their employees donate.

Pai recalls that earlier temples used to feed people free at midday, “but we have destroyed that social structure.” He wants to reinvent charity with a corporate mindset. “We want to do something large, transformational, which can change the context.”

Akshaya Patra is very proud of its modern, high-tech kitchens where food is steam cooked. It has used R&D to make them efficient, while reducing capex to the minimum. The food moves via gravity as it gets machine cooked, thus reducing energy requirements. At the end you get food that is consistent in quality and hygienic. Its flavour is local, it comes hot and unlimited for any child.

Akshaya Patra now works in six states - Karnataka, UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa and Andhra. It has a decentralised model in Rajasthan, Orissa and UP where rural women run local kitchens, follow a set menu, maintain hygiene and do their own book keeping.

“As a spiritual organisation, we want to transfer wealth, end hunger,” says Pandit Dasa. Pai says the same thing in a different idiom: “If we can do this for two generations, plus organise large-scale skill development, we can change the context.”