Jakarta – The Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) Program continues to show significant progress as one of the government’s strategic policies aimed at improving the nutritional quality of the community, particularly school children. With its very broad coverage, the implementation of this program requires clean, transparent, and professional governance so that its benefits can be optimally realized while maintaining public trust.
Vice Executive Director of the Indonesia Food Security Review (IFSR), Alfatehan Septianta, stated that the application of good governance principles is the main foundation to ensure that the MBG program runs effectively and sustainably.
“The Free Nutritious Meals program has a very large scale, so it requires transparent, accountable, and professional governance to maintain public trust,” said Alfatehan.
He explained that Indonesia is currently the country with the second-largest number of beneficiaries in the world for school meal programs. The MBG program has reached around 64 million beneficiaries every day.
“That number is still below India’s midday meal program, which reaches around 82 million beneficiaries per day. However, if the MBG program runs at full scale, Indonesia is estimated to reach around 80 million beneficiaries daily,” he explained.
To support the program’s operations, the government continues to expand the network of Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG) kitchens. To date, around 24,000 kitchens have been operating, or about 70 percent of the government’s target of 30,000 kitchens.
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN), as the implementing body of the program, has also established various operational standards through technical guidelines for the implementation of MBG. Each kitchen is required to meet food safety standards, such as halal certification and the Hygiene and Sanitation Eligibility Certificate (SLHS), and will eventually be directed to adopt the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) standard.
“Most SPPG kitchens already meet these standards, while those still in the process continue to receive guidance and supervision to ensure their operations comply with regulations,” Alfatehan said.
BGN has also demonstrated firm supervision by temporarily suspending around 1,542 kitchens that have not yet met infrastructure or operational requirements. He further explained that the program’s monitoring system continues to be strengthened through a reward and punishment approach.
“BGN has even implemented a rating system of A, B, and C with scores of up to 100 to encourage kitchens to compete in improving service quality,” he revealed.
He added that the MBG program also maintains a high level of transparency because the public can take part in monitoring its implementation.
“Parents, students, and the public can report findings through social media, and those reports are directly followed up by BGN,” he said.
In addition to improving children’s nutritional quality, the MBG program also generates significant economic impact. The operation of thousands of kitchens not only creates job opportunities but also stimulates local economic activity through the procurement of food supplies from farmers and local businesses.