The Hindu: The mega kitchen run by the Akshaya Patra Foundation at
Rayapur in Hubballi supplies freshly cooked food to an about 1.32 lakh
children from 789 schools spread across the district. The facility is
now knocking on the doors of the Guinness Book of World Records for its
reach out.
People in this kitchen cook 14 tonnes of
rice and 6 to 7 tonnes of vegetables every day (apart from quintals of
other ingredients).
The food is carried by 40
vehicles covering a distance of 3,000 km every day to cover the schools
in four taluks of Dharwad district. About 380 employees, including
hearing impaired, work in shifts to cook here.
“Right
from the procurement to cleaning of food grains and vegetables, to
cooking and finally delivering the food at the required temperature (60
degrees Celsius), standard procedures are used, which has resulted in
the kitchen getting ISO 22000 certification,” Yagneshwara Dasa, Manager
(Operations), Akshaya Patra Kitchen told
The Hindu
.
Set up 10 years ago at a cost of Rs. 11 crore, with
95 per cent donation from Infosys Foundation, the mega kitchen had
undergone periodic upgrading. Seventy per cent of the cost of the meal
is met by the State government.
The kitchen at
Hubballi has already got a commendation of certificate for food safety
by the Confederation of Indian Industry and National Award for Food
Safety-2014. “Now we have applied for OHSAS (Occupation Health and
Safety Assessment Series) and EMS (Environmental Management System),”
said Mr. Yagneshwara Dasa.
