This inauguration also marked the presence of the first MBG kitchen at a university in Indonesia and marked an important milestone in the university’s involvement in supporting national priority programs.
The General Chairperson of the Indonesian Free Nutrition Kitchen Entrepreneurs and Managers Association (APPMBGI), Abdul Rivai Ras, expressed his appreciation for Hasanuddin University’s (Unhas) initiative in establishing and operating the MBG kitchen on campus.
“This is not just a kitchen in the operational sense. It’s a living laboratory. This is where science, research, innovation, and practice meet in a unified ecosystem,” said Rivai in Makassar on Sunday (May 3).
According to Rivai, the model implemented by Unhas is able to address a classic development challenge, namely the gap between academic research results and implementation in the field. He believes that much research has stopped at the conceptual level, while practice has proceeded without adequate scientific support.
“We often see research stop at the academic level, while practice has proceeded without a strong scientific basis. This model breaks that chain. What is researched is immediately tested, and what is implemented can immediately be scientifically improved,” he explained.
He added that the concept of integrating learning and production centers, as implemented in the Unhas MBG kitchen, has long been a practice in developed countries. This approach is considered capable of accelerating innovation, increasing efficiency, and maintaining sustainable service quality.
“When learning centers exist side by side with production centers, the innovation process becomes much faster, more adaptive, and more measurable,” he said.
APPMBGI stated its readiness to encourage collaboration between universities, the government, and business actors to strengthen the research- and innovation-based MBG ecosystem.
“We want this program to be systematically and sustainably successful, so we need models like this. We’re not just increasing the number of kitchens, but ensuring each kitchen has a scientific basis and quality standards,” Rivai emphasized.
He also hopes the model developed by Unhas can become a national reference, so that the implementation of the MBG program focuses not only on quantity but also on quality and long-term impact on society.
“This is an example of how public policy meets academic excellence. We’re not just implementing a program, but building a strong system for the future,” he concluded.
The presence of MBG kitchens on campus is seen as strengthening the role of universities as agents of development that focus not only on education but also on real solutions for society. The teaching factory concept implemented opens opportunities for students and researchers to be directly involved in the production and distribution of nutrition services, while also testing research results in real time.