Rashmi Bansal's 'God's Own Kitchen' explores horizons of feeding hungry kids

Rashmi Bansal

A writer, youth expert and entrepreneur, Rashmi Bansal's latest book, "God's Own Kitchen" perfectly encapsulates the inspiring story of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a social enterprise run by spiritualists and capitalists.

While chalking the organisation's influential journey towards feeding 1.6 million children, Rashmi Bansal looks at some of the outstanding innovations, in the Akshaya Patra kitchens, that made it possible to feed such a large number of kids, day after day. Let's peek at some of the innovations, which only go to show that necessity, in fact, is the mother of all inventions:

On the 17th anniversary of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, Rashmi Bansal points out these innovations that the foundation brought forth to continue their goal - ‘No child should go hungry'.

1) The de-stoning machine:
The sheer scale of the expansive three-storied Akshaya Patra kitchen in Hubli called for innovative measure for carrying out every-day tasks such as, de-stoning the rice. The kitchen consumes 12,000kgs to 15,000kgs of rice each day in keeping with the requirement of providing 100 gms of rice to each child, every day. However, the rice supplied by the government is mixed with impurities such as stones and rusty nails, and requires being thoroughly de-stoned. This is where the de-stoning machine came into picture complete with a vibrating mechanism. The machine removes all sand, wood and other impurities.

2) The gravity flow:
The Hubli kitchen has been set up with the cooking-area on the first floor, while the delivery area is on the ground floor. So, in order to send tons and tons of dal, vegetables and rice to deliver, on the lower floor, laws of physics were employed through ‘gravity flow,' another name for chutes that carry the sambar from the first floor, down to the delivery floor. The hot food prepared is also sent down to the delivery floor using the special pipes, which are fitted with a tap at the delivery end to ensure that the food is packed in the right amount.

3) The ‘hub and spoke model':
The Akshaya Patra team working with the Innovation Academy came up with the ‘hub and spoke model.' The concept is all about a centralized kitchen - acting as the ‘hub,' where the pre-preparations are to be carried out. The prepared ingredients for the food are then sent across to smaller kitchens that have the resources to complete 25,000 meals and deliver, within the 15km radius. The advantage of this concept being implemented includes fresh and piping hot meals for the kids at school. Furthermore, with the distance between the delivery centre and the school being reduced, the delivery vehicles could transport breakfast and then make another trip for delivering lunch.

4) The roti - maker:
The extended search for a quality roti-maker that produced 10,000 chapatis an hour, led Akshaya Patra to a competent manufacturer, who delivered the mechanism. However, the chapatis produced by this contraption were hard, almost like biscuits. With the help of the foundation members, the problem was detected and the conveyor belt was then changed to accommodate a meshed division, which allowed the chapatis to come in contact with open fire, resulting in soft, puffed-up and delicious offering. Moving forward the requirements increased and with the assistance of an Akshaya Patra monk, who put a new design together, a machine with the ability to churn out 40,000 chapatis an hour, was manufactured.
The enthralling innovations go on to reflect what can be achieved when passion and will-power combine to achieve a firm goal.

Book: God's Own Kitchen
Author: By Rashmi Bansal
Publisher: Westland Books
Price: Rs 350