The centralized kitchens of Akshaya Patra are highly mechanized, innovatively engineered facilities with a capacity to cook tens of thousands of meals in a few short hours. Many of them are ISO: 22000 certified and adhere to the strictest standards of hygiene.   However, they are often located at great distances from the schools in which we serve the mid-day meals and this often presents a logistic challenge that must be overcome.

In Bangalore alone, an average of 50 km must be covered to reach the children, all before their 1:00 p.m. lunch break.

The Foundation uses custom-built food vans, each with the capacity to transport up to 4000 meals, in order to ensure the children receive their food on time. These food vans, therefore, are essential to the proper and timely implementation of the mid-day meal program in locations where our centralized kitchens are present.

In this endeavour, we received a helping hand from Cerner Corporation, which donated a food van for the use of the Foundation. The solutions company, which has been instrumental in transforming healthcare by eliminating error, variance and waste for healthcare providers and consumers around the world, has been focusing on child welfare as a part of their social initiative.

The team of 600 associates who form the multinational’s Indian operations conducted an active survey before they chose the Akshaya Patra Foundation to partner with and extend their support. Rama Nadimpalli, the company’s Managing Director handed over the keys to Sri Chitranga Chaitanya Dasa, Program Director of Akshaya Patra Foundation and flagged the vehicle in a ceremony at Cerner's campus. Sri Chitranga Chaitanya Dasa expressed delight and said "The support of companies like Cerner has enabled us to grow to a potential of feeding over 1.2 million children today".

Mr. Rama Nadimpalli added, "Akshaya Patra is doing a commendable job in making sure that the future generation is taken care of." 
The team from Cerner also followed the bus to a nearby school where hot and nutritious meals were served by enthusiastic staff of Cerner. They also enjoyed the meal themselves and expressed satisfaction on its quality and taste.