PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA — Since its launch in early 2025, Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meal Program (MBG) has become a key initiative to improve children’s nutritional intake nationwide. However, despite its positive impact, the program continues to face challenges, particularly regarding food safety and quality.
The program, officially implemented by the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) on January 6, 2025, is carried out through the Nutritional Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG) in stages, following the academic schedules of participating schools. Each meal served is designed to meet the daily nutritional adequacy standard (AKG), with breakfast covering 20–25% and lunch 30–35% of daily nutritional needs.
The BGN also prioritizes remote, frontier, and outermost (terpencil, terdepan, dan terluar/3T) regions, involving local governments, cooperatives, and private partners to ensure smooth implementation. The program not only targets school children but also pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers, aiming to enhance overall community nutrition while promoting education on healthy eating habits.
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Beyond providing nutritious meals, the MBG program also seeks to raise awareness about balanced nutrition and healthy diets. It further supports local economic empowerment by sourcing ingredients from local farmers, fishers, and MSMEs.
According to BGN Deputy for Promotion and Cooperation, Nyoto Suwignyo, the MBG program serves as a valuable tool to educate children about responsible food consumption.
“Through MBG, we can instill the values of sustainability early on, including appreciating food and reducing waste,” he said during a mid-2025 discussion event.
However, the program still faces issues in the field. Prof. Dr. Evi Satispi, M.Si, nutrition expert and Dean of FISIP at Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta, highlighted ongoing problems such as spoiled food, food poisoning incidents, and fund mismanagement.
“There are still many challenges in the MBG program today—from spoiled food to poisoning cases and even misuse of program funds,” she told Palmoilmagazine.com during the Journalistic Days event on Saturday (October 4, 2025).
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Prof. Evi explained that food contamination might occur due to long transportation times between centralized MBG kitchens and schools, often taking 2–3 hours, allowing food to spoil. She compared it to plastic-packaged beverages that can become toxic when exposed to heat for extended periods.
To address this, Prof. Evi suggested a collaborative approach involving schools and surrounding communities.
“By engaging schools and local communities, we can ensure safer, fresher meals. The taste will also remain better since food won’t travel long distances when kitchens are located near schools,” she said.
She also emphasized the importance of continuous monitoring to ensure program success and sustainability.
“There must be consistent supervision, as food needs vary widely. The central government doesn’t directly handle these operations—BGN coordinates everything related to implementing the MBG program across Indonesia,” she added.
Through stronger collaboration between government agencies, schools, and communities, the MBG program is expected to deliver safe, nutritious, and sustainable meals to millions of children, while fostering greater public awareness of the importance of healthy nutrition. (P1)
