Redesigning midday meal logistics for the Akshaya patra foundation: OR at work in feeding hungry school children

Abstract

Midday meal programs at schools are prevalent in countries such as India. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, operates such a program in India for about 1.3 million children in more than 9,000 schools in nine states. The foundation faced a logistics problem in efficiently distributing food within the available time window. This paper discusses the challenges it faced, how we used OR modeling to overcome them, and how we designed, developed, and implemented a software solution. To address the logistics problem, we proposed a three-stage decomposition heuristic solution, which consists of clustering schools, assigning appropriate distribution vehicles to clusters, and routing vehicles within the clusters. We implemented our solution, AMRUTA, on a pilot basis in one location. Based on this pilot, the projected annual cost savings are US$75,000, which would enable the foundation to add 2,400 more children. When the program is fully implemented, we estimate that the annual cost savings will be about US$1.96 million. This project demonstrates how operations research can be useful for solving social sector problems in a developing country such as India.