Narrator: This is Akshaya Patra, the world's largest
free-school-meal program. This kitchen alone makes enough biryani for 75,000 children daily. Across India, the foundation's 65 kitchens serve 2 million children every day in over 19,000 schools, and has served over 3 billion meals since its inception in 2000, something which Vice Chairman Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa is very proud of. Chanchalapathi: It's like
feeding all of India three times. Narrator: We visited a mega kitchen to see how they make vegetable biryani and moong dal payasam in such big batches. This mega kitchen is located in Bangalore, the capital of India's
southern Karnataka state, and staffs 230 workers
across three floors. We start on the top floor, where all of the food is cleaned, cut, and prepped. Every day, workers prepare the following day's raw ingredients and then store the food in a cold room that can hold up to 5 tons of food. Shridhar Venkat: On an average day, we use about 25 ingredients
in this kitchen, and one very important
aspect in Akshaya Patra is the menu design. Narrator: Today's menu
includes vegetable biryani, an Indian rice dish that
the kitchen prepares with a mix of vegetables
and a house blend of spices. Workers begin by running the crates of prepped vegetables through
these cutting machines. So, because we are preparing
large quantity of food and we have to do it very quickly and we have to do it
very cost-efficiently, we extensively use a lot of technology. Narrator: This batch of
biryani contains tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and squash. Shridhar: If you look at these crates, every meal which goes to a child at least has minimum 50 gram of vegetable for a primary-school child and 75 gram of vegetables for an upper-primary-school child. Narrator: Alongside the
vegetables, workers also portion and prepare rice for this dish. The rice is then washed thoroughly with water before it's cooked. On an average day, the kitchen can handle about 7 tons of grains
and 5 tons of dairy. The washed rice and precut
vegetables then move through a chute that
connects to the second floor. This simple use of gravity
is one of the key components of this facility, as it reduces the amount of manual labor and keeps things clean. The ingredients land into 51 of these stainless-steel cauldrons, where the cooks use massive stirrers to mix everything together. Workers then close the lids
and utilize a 2-ton boiler that generates steam to cook the food. Shridhar: So, biryani takes
typically an hour to make, right from preprocessing to finishing it, and the cauldron, which you see here, can feed about 1,000 children. Narrator: For food safety and cleanliness, the vegetable biryani is
temperature-checked and logged. And next to each cauldron, a small stainless-steel
vessel stores a sample of each batch, which is then tested 24 hours later for microbial growth. Once a week, children
receive their lunchtime meal with a sweet treat. Shridhar: And here, moong
dal payasam is being made. Moong dal payasam is a dessert, and children love
dessert, being youngsters. So, each of these cauldrons can handle about 1,200 liters of dal, or lentils. Narrator: 1,500 pounds
of lentils drop down into each of the six cauldrons
used to cook the dish. Milk and raisins are also added
for texture and creaminess. Finally, jaggery syrup,
which is an unrefined natural sweetener made from sugarcane, gets stirred in to the cauldrons. Shridhar: Typically, moong
dal payasam takes about 1½ hours to one hour 45 minutes, right from boiling the moong dal till the final dessert is made. Narrator: Once the vegetable biryani and moong dal payasam
are finished cooking, workers transfer the dishes from the cauldrons into these carts, which are then taken
to another large chute that connects to the ground floor. The food drops down, then gets portioned and packed into individual
vessels for distribution. Shridhar: These are food-grade vessels. Each of the vessels can handle food for about 85 to 100 children, and one of the important cornerstones of Akshaya Patra is hygiene and safety. So, you can see, each vessel where food is going to be stored is getting washed or cleansed with steam. Narrator: Then they're
passed down a conveyor belt and get loaded onto Akshaya
Patra's custom-built buses, called "buses of hope." Shridhar: These are insulated vehicles which keep the food warm. Large quantity of food
goes in each vehicle. Over a period of time, Akshaya Patra has developed
logistics ability. So, for example, from this kitchen, we have about 32 vehicles. We handle about close to 650 schools, and we are feeding about
75,000 children every day, though the end-all strength
is about 110,000 children. Narrator: And that is
just a single kitchen. When you include the 64
other locations across India, they feed over 2 million children daily. Chanchalapathi: It had
a very modest beginning. We started serving 1,500 children in the outskirts of Bangalore
city in the year 2000, and gradually, we saw there
were more and more requests from the headmasters of the schools, who would write to us and say, "We see your vehicle carrying food pass in front of our school. Can you please stop
and feed our children?" And when we saw these requests, we kept increasing and
scaling up our program, and that's how, today, in Bangalore city, we serve about 200,000 children. Narrator: So, how does
Akshaya Patra get its funds to pay for all of the
free food they provide? Chanchalapathi: So, we
get a certain amount of support from the government. We top it up with some more money that we raise from
individuals and foundation to ensure that the meal
we give to the children is hot, nutritious, safe, tasty, so that children are delighted
to have a meal at noontime. Narrator: Today, they serve 19,000 schools across 14 states and two union territories in India. Kitchen staff will create menus based on the students' preferences
and feedback by area. For example, Akshaya Patra's kitchens in northern Indian
regions can expect foods like roti or flatbreads. In southern India, rice
is more widely eaten as a staple food, and the children love
the rice-based dishes prepared by the foundation. Shridhar: Another important
aspect of Akshaya Patra is we want to give what otherwise their mothers will give to them if they're at home and
the mothers had resources. Of course, no one can replace a mother, but Akshaya Patra tries to come as close to what a mother can cook. Chanchalapathi: You know,
you cannot run a big program of this kind in a
mechanical, official manner. All of the personnel involved
in the Akshaya Patra program come with a deep commitment of compassion and kindness for children, and so it is that compassion that keeps us very highly
motivated day after day to see that we do our tasks and duties with a lot of heart.
