Mumbai is a city of extremes, with the richest and the highly vulnerable residing in close proximity, feels Vikas Parchhanda, CEO of Akshaya Chaitanya. And such paradoxical existence didn’t let him turn a blind eye towards it.
While studying and subsequently working in this city, I imagined Mumbai as a place where everyone would get a fair chance to fulfil their dreams. Thus, it should be the city with the happiest people in the country. But that wasn’t the fact.
Recollecting those days, he says, his first job with L’Oreal in Lower Parel brought him to Mumbai. He used to stay in Bandra, and his workplace was equally posh. But often, the stark realities of hunger and despair dwelling in the nearby slums caught his attention from his office cabin and home’s windows. Vikas could not cope with such disturbing truths and took a transfer to Delhi. But perhaps, Mumbai didn’t give up on him.
In 2015, he got in touch with ISKCON Bangalore devotees. This association turned deeper in 2019 when they trusted him with the mandate of making Mumbai hunger-free.
“It led to the formation of Akshaya Chaitanya, an initiative by the Hare Krishna Movement. The aim is to eradicate hunger as a vulnerability for the underprivileged in urban areas, enabling them to chase their dreams.“
Vikas was born and brought up in a business family. He pursued engineering from Thapar Institute and later MBA from Symbiosis. Before venturing to work with start-ups, he had worked for MNCs across FMCG and healthcare.
After serving Reliance Jio as Vice President, he called the long 17 years of corporate life quits. His aim was to fulfill the mission of eradicating hunger in Mumbai and upping the learnings to support the vulnerable lots across urban India.
The thought was noble. But was the process of setting it up came easy?
It’s always a challenge to set up any initiative in Mumbai. The costs run through the roof, and approvals are most arduous. Finalizing an 8000 sq. ft site, building the centralized kitchen amidst COVID lockdowns, not being able to access corporates for CSR funds and then creating the dedicated team were key milestones over the last year of this initiative.
For funding, Akshaya Chaitanya mobilizes 50% of grants from corporates and another 40% from HNIs, with the balance from individual donors on the website and other platforms. It has a team of four people taking care of each of these verticals.
Also, read: How Mumbai Streets Gave This Lady The Purpose To End Hunger With Her Feed’em Movement
Akshaya Chaitanya – Impact
This establishment has many unique features that make it different from others. Firstly, it is the scale of execution. Currently, it can produce meals for 25,000 beneficiaries. Secondly, it wants to ensure the best in quality with consistency. Its well-designed set-up, modern equipment, and highly skilled staff could bring the best of the Mumbai restaurants to shame when it comes to scoring in stringent quality, nutrition, and hygiene standards.
“We fed over 14 lakh meals in the last year and currently, feeding 8050 beneficiaries every day,” informs Vikas.
Meanwhile, Akshaya Chaitanya is executing the following initiatives:
Bal Shiksha Ahara: Akshaya Chaitanya‘s breakfast program for nearly 6000 children in 53 municipal schools in Byculla. The idea is to encourage more children to be regular with classroom education and eradicate classroom hunger for better learning outcomes.
Swasthya Ahara: Akshaya Chaitanya‘s feeding program for vulnerable families of over 2500 patients hospitalized in six government hospitals. Paushtik Ahara: Lunch meal program for 500+ migrant children in three of Mumbai’s slum areas to support their informal education.
Also, read: Apni Roti – An Effort To Ensure No One Goes To Bed Hungry In The City Of Joy
Our set-up is FSSAI certified, and we implement processes and records for ISO 22000 certification in the second year of operations. We have a dedicated quality department that ensures kitchen and distribution operations hygiene. It conducts sensory and temperature checks for all batches from the kitchen. Moreover, we preserve food samples for 48 hours for random testing on microbial growth. Our menus are backed by deep research on nutritional value. We get the menu measured once every six months to ensure a balanced diet for our beneficiaries.
Akshaya Chaitanya‘s list of humbling achievements is inspiring. Over 15,000 patient families were supported by Akshaya Chaitanya last year in five government hospitals. Its Paushtik Ahara program introduced 38 children in slums to formal schools, and the rest continued with informal education. Bal Shiksha Ahara program has shown up to 22% improvement in school attendance as children eagerly await for wholesome breakfast.
Vikas and his equally passionate team at Akshaya Chaitanya want people to visit the NGO’s kitchen and distribution sites to see the genuine, credible, and impactful work happening on the ground. That’s how each one can become its brand ambassador and spread the word. The larger goal is to turn it into a people’s movement in every city. Besides that, it has planned some significant upcoming milestones.
By 2025, we will have four to five centralized set-ups in this city serving one lakh beneficiaries daily, covering pan-Mumbai geography. We intend to scale up our corporate and HNI support base through our credibility and impactful on-ground service. It will help us grow this initiative to achieve hunger-free Mumbai.
Also, read: Meet The Doctor Who’s Making Sure Nobody Goes To Bed Hungry In Chennai!
One can be a part of Akshaya Chaitanya by adopting an initiative for a period of time, volunteering for fundraising, extending PR/ marketing support, Social Media shoutouts, and donating in kind.
As his signing-off thought, Vikas shares:
Food is God’s gift for every living entity, for he provides enough to an ant and elephant. Its scarcity is a man-made problem that we try to bridge through an initiative to serve humanity.