Indonesia launches free meals project to feed children and pregnant women to fight stunting

Indonesia's new government started an ambitious $28 million project on Monday to feed nearly 90 million children and pregnant women to fight malnutrition and stunting although critics question whether the nationwide program is affordable.

The Free Nutritious Meal programme delivers on a campaign promise by President Prabowo Subianto, who was elected last year to lead the nation of more than 282 million people and Southeast Asia's largest economy. He said the programme aimed to fight the stunting of growth that afflicts of 21.5% of Indonesian children younger than 5 and would raise the earnings of farmers and the value of their harvest.

Subianto has pledged to accelerate GDP growth to 8% from 5% now.

In his inauguration speech in October, Subianto said many children are malnourished and his promise to provide free school lunches and milk to 83 million students at more than 400,000 schools across the country is part of a longer-term strategy to develop the nation’s human resources to achieve a "Golden Indonesia” generation by 2045.

Indonesia's Minister of Cooperatives, Budi Arie Setiadi, visits students on the first day of the free-meal programme at Angkasa 5 Elementary School in Jakarta. AFP

"Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line, too many of our children go to school without breakfast and do not have clothes for school,” Subianto said.

Subianto’s signature programme, which had included free milk, could cost upward of 450 trillion rupiah ($28 billion). He said his team had made the calculations to run such a programme, and "We are capable,” he asserted.

Students eat lunch on the first day of a free-meal programme at a junior high school in Cimahi. AFP

The government's target is to reach 19.47 million schoolchildren and pregnant women in 2025 with a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion) so as to keep the annual deficit under a legislated ceiling of 3% of GDP, said Dadan Hindayana, the head of the newly formed National Nutrition Agency.

Students drink milk as they eat lunch on the first day of a free-meal programme at a junior high school in Cimahi. AFP

Hindayana said the money would buy an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of rice, 1.2 million tonnes of chicken, 500,000 tonnes of beef, 1 million tonnes of fish, vegetable and fruit, and 4 million kilolitres of milk, and at least 5,000 kitchens would be set up across the country.

On Monday, a truck carrying about 3,000 meal portions arrived before lunch at SD Cilangkap 08, a primary school in the Jakarta satellite city of Depok. The 740 students were provided plates containing rice, stir-fried vegetables, tempeh, stir-fried chicken and oranges.

Students eat lunch on the first day of a free-meal programme at 11 State Senior High School in East Jakarta. AFP

"We send a team to each school to facilitate the meal distribution to students every day,” Hindayana said, adding that the program will provide one meal per day for each student from early childhood education to senior high school levels, covering a third of the daily caloric needs for children, with the government providing the meals at no cost to recipients.
But the populist programme has drawn criticism from investors and analysts, ranging from conflation with the interests of industrial lobby groups or the sheer scale of the logistics required, to the burden on Indonesia’s state finances and economy.

Student and teachers collect lunch boxes on the first day of a free-meal programme at an elementary school in Banda Aceh. AFP

Economic researcher from the Center of Economic and Law Studies, Nailul Huda, said with Indonesia’s tight fiscal condition, state finances are not strong enough to support the fiscal burden and this will lead to additional state debt.
"That is not comparable to the effect of free meals programme which can also be misdirected,” Huda said, "The burden on our state budget is too heavy if it is forced to reach 100% of the target recipients, and it will be difficult for Prabowo’s government to achieve the economic growth target of 8%.”

He warned it could also worsen the external balance of payments for the country, which is already a major importer of rice, wheat, soybeans, beef and dairy products. But Reni Suwarso, the director of Institute for Democracy, Security and Strategic Studies said the stunting rate in Indonesia is still far from the target of a 14% reduction in 2024.

Students pray before eating their lunch on the first day of a free-meal programme at an elementary school in Banda Aceh. AFP

According to the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey, the national stunting prevalence was 21.5%, down around 0.8% compared to the previous year. The United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF estimated one in 12 Indonesian children younger than 5 are wasted while one in five are stunted.

Wasting refers to low weight for the child's height, while stunting refers to low height for the child's age. Both conditions are caused by malnourishment.

Minister of Cooperatives Budi Arie Setiadi visits students on the first day of the free-meal programme at Angkasa 5 Elementary School in Jakarta. AFP

"That’s so bad and must be solved!” Suwarso said, "Child malnourishment have severe consequences, threatening the health and long-term development of infants and young children throughout this nation.”

Associated Press