Akshaya Patra launches its Earthquake Relief Centralized Kitchen project in Nepal

Akshaya Patra, a widely known and globally acknowledged nonprofit organization has undertaken yet another noble initiative; the Earthquake Relief Centralized Kitchen Project. The organization runs school lunch programmes across the country with the aims that ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.’ Headquartered in Bengaluru, Akshaya Patra executes the world’s largest (NGO run) mid-day meal programme.

The Earthquake Relief Centralised Kitchen Project has been undertaken by Akshaya Patra Foundation in collaboration with Jamsetji Tata Trust and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha.  The kitchen, set up at Bhaktapur in Nepal served its first evening meals on June 19, 2015. Around 1,100 people were provided a fresh meal of rice, dal (lentils) and potato sabji (vegetable dish) in Bode, one of the eleven areas to be served meals under the relief project. The people from the worst affected area of Sindhupal Chowk have been accommodated in makeshift shelters in Bode. The morning meal was served to around 5,500 people on June 20, 2015. It is a great initiative by the organization which cooks an estimated 10,000 meals in a batch and serves about 100,000 meals a day. The kitchen will continue to serve the people and provide relief to the beneficiaries. It is well equipped with three 600 litre capacity cauldrons to cook rice and one 1,200 litre capacity cauldron to cook dal. Various machines to cut and grind vegetables are used in the kitchen to speed up the preparation process.

Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, Akshaya Patra Foundation, expressed his gratitude and thanked the Government of Nepal, Jamsetji Tata Trust and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha for their unflinching support in setting up the earthquake relief kitchen facility in the affected area.