The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsMore than 1,700 students and teachers sickened this week due to free meals
In separate incidents in three other locations this week, 950 individuals had fallen ill as a result of food poisoning linked to the programme, a member of a House commission overseeing health said.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
Workers prepare nutritious meals under the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program at the Samarinda Police Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG) in Samarinda Ulu, East Kalimantan, on Nov. 4. (Antara/M Risyal Hidayat)
A
nother 777 students and teachers contracted food poisoning in Central Java after consuming government-issued free meals, a school principal said on Thursday, bringing the total number of people made ill by the scheme to more than 1,700 in just a week.
In separate incidents in three other locations this week, 950 individuals had fallen ill as a result of food poisoning linked to the programme, a member of a House commission overseeing health said.
President Prabowo Subianto launched the multibillion-dollar free meal programme last year to improve nutrition for tens of millions of children, but the costly scheme scheme has been dogged by allegations of corruption, leadership changes and a spate of mass food poisoning outbreaks.
In a senior high school in Lasem, Central Java, 752 students and 25 teachers have been suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting after consuming free meals on Wednesday, said the school's principal, Juhartutik.
The students in Lasem were given grilled chicken. Before it was distributed, a food taster found that some of it was "slimy", Juhartutik said.
"The slimy ones had already been set aside... The kitchen operator said the food was cooked at 3 a.m. and it was eaten at noon," she said, adding that most of the victims were sent home.
Joko Paryanto, a local doctor who treated the victims, said 15 students and teachers have been hospitalised.
