Prisma Ardianto, Celvin Moniaga Sipahutar, Jakarta – Indonesia has decided to postpone its target of feeding 82.9 million people free meals to February 2026 as the government intends to be extra careful in preparing the lunches.
The free meal program took center stage in President Prabowo Subianto's policies since he assumed power in October 2024. Prabowo originally set a goal to feed 82.9 million people by the end of 2025, but later decided to bring it down to 70 million people. Prabowo has tasked the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) to oversee the entire program.
While the Indonesian leader boasted how the program had fed 36.7 million people over the past 10 months, Prabowo acknowledged that there were some problems, including not enough kitchens and poor hygiene among kids who didn't wash their hands.
Distribution issues and the quality of ingredients also caused some setbacks, as food poisonings painted a grim picture of the program that aims to improve the national nutritional intake. However, Prabowo has claimed that the free meal rollout still had a 99.99 percent success rate.
"BGN chief [Dadan Hindayana] has been working hard, so we can achieve 40 million people. I told him not to force it. What matters is that the implementation is going well," Prabowo said at a cabinet meeting that marked his first year in office on Monday.
Dadan confirmed that the full-year target of 82.9 million people could face a two-month delay. "We will do our best, but we might achieve it by February," Dadan told the press that same day.
Why Prabowo insists on running the program
Prabowo said that job creation was the reason why he insisted on the meal rollout. According to Prabowo, the budget-heavy program has created 1 million jobs so far, and can go up to 1.5 million next year. As many as 18,895 small enterprises, cooperatives, and region-owned businesses are part of the ecosystem. A single public kitchen employs at least 50 people. There is also indirect employment on the supplier side, including the farmers and fishermen.
Prabowo cited a Rockefeller Institute study suggesting that every $1 spent on the program could lead to a $5 short-term return, and might even grow to $37 in the medium or long-term.
"Imagine, we will allocate around Rp 330 trillion or approximately $20 billion, so if we multiply it by 5, it can lead to $100 billion spread across the villages, districts, regencies," Prabowo said.
The government is planning to spend no more than Rp 335 trillion in state money next year for the free meal program, a huge jump from the 2025 budget of Rp 71 trillion. Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has flagged concerns over the program's sluggish spending. As of early October 2025, the school-feeding program has only spent Rp 20.6 trillion, just 29 percent of the full-year budget.
Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-delays-full-free-meal-target-to-february-202