Logistics and distribution strategy for large scale delivery of mid-day meal

Abstract

In a country like India, where the literacy levels are low, the government has introduced various schemes and programs to give education to every child. It is a known fact that most of the poor cannot afford three meals a day and it becomes difficult for children to concentrate on education with empty stomachs. Many state governments realised this and started mid-day meal programs in schools. The mid-day meal program by ISKCON, which was known as Akshaya Patra was a fore runner for many of the government programs. The Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) founded by Swami Prabhupada, started its mid-day meal program with 1500 children. Today APF has grown to serve 1.2 million children every day in 8 states across the country. Along with growth, there have been problems too. The government reimburses only part of the cost to APF; the remaining is borne by donors. With the number of children to be served increasing year on year, several issues like kitchen size and location, number of vehicles for delivery, vessels to be used etc have to be addressed. APF’s vision of reaching out to 5 million children by 2020 makes it imperative to identify and iron out all the bottlenecks in the present system and ensure scalability and also see to it that the system is replicable all over the country. Currently distribution and logistics cost accounts for around 19% of APF’s expenditure and is the prime target for cost reduction. Our project aims to reduce the distribution and logistics cost by scientifically analysing the demand points and clustering them in such a way that the current demand can be served with fewer vehicles than what is currently being used.