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View all search resultsDo-or-die year for Prabowo’s free meals rollout
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Heroic effort: Workers dressed as superheroes deliver free nutritious meals at SD Depok Baru 08 state elementary school in Depok, West Java, on Wednesday, Nov. 26. The National Nutrition Agency has recommended the use of potatoes and fish in school meals to avoid inflation. (Antara/Yulius Satria Wijaya)
W
ith a budget nearing one-tenth of this year’s state spending, President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free nutritious meal program faces mounting pressure to justify its cost, amid criticism over food safety incidents, weak oversight and competing policy priorities.
Launched on Jan. 6 last year to help address stunting, the program initially operated just 190 kitchens, known as Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG), serving around 570,000 children in selected cities.
In less than a year, it expanded to more than 17,000 kitchens nationwide, feeding nearly 50.4 million recipients including students, infants and pregnant women as of Dec. 15, backed by a Rp 71 trillion (US$4.25 billion) allocation, even though absorption was only 81 percent until the end of the year.
Prabowo has repeatedly praised the breakneck pace of the rollout, which he said has drawn international plaudits, and is seeking to expand the program further in 2026.
With a long-term target of reaching around 83 million people, the free meals program has been allocated Rp 335 trillion this year, equivalent to 8.7 percent of the total state budget.
To put it into perspective, the allocation is over 680 times larger than the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB)’s budget, the agency on the frontlines of disaster response, and more than twice as large as the traditionally well-funded Defense Ministry.
Read also: Free meals overshadow core education spending in 2026 budget
