JakartaPost/AFP-Jan 6
Indonesia launched an ambitious $4.3 billion free-meal program on Monday to combat stunted growth due to malnutrition, a key election promise of President Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo has pledged to provide nutritious meals free to tens of millions of schoolchildren and pregnant women, saying it would improve their quality of life and boost economic growth. “This is historic for Indonesia for the first time conducting a nationwide nutrition program for toddlers, students, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers,” presidential spokesman Hasan Nasbi said late on Sunday. At least 190 kitchens run by third-party catering services opened nationwide, including some run by military bases, and were busy preparing meals from midnight before distributing them to schoolchildren and pregnant women. Second-grader Khalifa Eldrian beamed after finishing his free lunch of rice, chicken, vegetables, and a banana at an elementary school in East Jakarta. “I’m happy because the food was delicious… I can concentrate more when studying,” he told AFP. The government has allocated Rp10,000 (62 US cents) per meal and has a budget of Rp71 trillion ($4.3 billion) for the 2025 fiscal year. It is set to deliver meals to almost 83 million people by 2029. Stunting affects 21.5 percent of children in the archipelago of some 282 million people. The Southeast Asian nation aims to reduce the rate to five percent by 2045. Staff in a kitchen in Bogor, West Java, had worked tirelessly since just after midnight. “We serve different menus every day, it has to be different so children won’t get bored,” staff member Ayu Pertiwi told AFP. Tan Shot Yen, a Jakarta-based nutritionist and doctor, said trials late last year were mostly conducted in urban centers and assessments were not made available to the public. She said the government needed transparent monitoring and robust food safety management to prevent hazards and the inclusion of unhealthy processed products, such as instant noodles and sausages. “I hope this program is not just a temporary charitable effort to fulfil political promises,” she said. “To continue it for the long term, the government should focus not only on funding but also on empowering communities so (recipients) are not simply reliant on free meals once a day while struggling to find food for the other two meals,” she said. Prabowo has championed the program since the presidential campaign and his team has said the poorest and most remote areas of the Southeast Asian archipelago would be prioritized. Read more at:
