Cisco,digitise operations at NGO behind midday meal

Bengaluru, Oct 11 : Global technology leader Cisco on Wednesday announced an agreement to digitise operations at Akshaya Patra Foundation -- which runs the world's largest non-profit mid-day meal programme, serving wholesome food to over 1.66 million children from 13,958 schools across 12 Indian states.
As part of the agreement, Cisco will help digitise Akshaya Patra kitchens across seven locations (two kitchens in Bengaluru, one each in Lucknow, Vrindavan, Bellary, Guwahati, and Jigani) on a single network which will enable them to efficiently track their kitchen production, distribution, supply chain and logistics.
"In India, we focus on positively affecting and engaging with the communities in which we work, live, and play," said V.C. Gopalratnam, CIO International Operations (APJC, EMEAR and LATAM) at Cisco, on Wednesday.
"Using the power of the network to digitally enable non-profit organisations such as Akshaya Patra is a great example of how technology can help solve the world's most challenging problems.
"This digitisation effort is expected to increase Akshaya Patra's operational efficiency by about five per cent in the initial phase, which will help them extend the mid-day meal program to over 28,500 students everyday immediately."
It will also help accelerate Akshaya Patra's goal to reach five million children by 2020, the statement said.
Shridhar Venkat, Akshaya Patra Foundation's CEO, said he was excited to work with Cisco.
"With a rapidly growing network of kitchens, the network platform we are putting in place today will help us in our digitisation journey by enabling real-time data collection, streamline kitchen production, distribution and supply chain. All of this will help us in our mission to reach more children."