TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Prabowo Subianto's free nutritious meal program will commence on January 2, 2025. Expert staff to the head of the National Nutrition Agency, Ikeu Tanziha, said the program will target around 15 to 20 million children at 82 locations spread across Indonesia.
"We are calculating how many children we will intervene with Rp71 trillion. That’s approximately 15-20 million children,” she said on Monday, November 4, 2024, adding that the early stage of the program will not reach all children across Indonesia due to limited funds.
To prepare the program, Ikeu said, the National Nutrition Agency worked with various ministries, state agencies, and MSMEs that will supply the food at the designated locations.
"We have collaborated with the Military District Command. There are 50 locations in Java and 32 outside of Java, and the locations may continue to be expanded,” said Ikeu.
The National Nutrition Agency has also trained and inaugurated around 1,000 bachelors of the Indonesian development drivers (SPPI) to operate service units across Indonesia. Each service unit will consist of a manager, an accounting expert, and a nutrition specialist to ensure the nutritional values of the children are fulfilled.
In addition, according to Ikeu, the government has run several trials at a number of kitchen units targeting a minimum of 3,000 children. "It has been operating for a year up to November and has been running smoothly," she said.
The Head of the National Nutrition Agency, Dadan Hindayana, previously stated that the free nutritious meal program will implement three methods to achieve the intended targets. Firstly, establish central kitchens in each service unit region. Second, place central kitchens in schools or pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) if there are at least 2,000 students.
"Third, we will send remote and hard-to-reach areas vacuum-sealed food that can last for a year,” said Dadan, considering these areas can be anywhere from 30 minutes to days away from the city centers.
"So we can deliver once a week or once a month with various menus," said Dadan.
Furthermore, according to Dadan, the agency will establish service units in locations that will handle 3,000 children and will partner with local governments to build the infrastructure.
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