Indonesia launches first free meals program for children and pregnant women | Food News

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar program to provide free meals to more than a quarter of his people has officially kicked off, with 570,000 mouths fed on its opening day.

Despite being the centerpiece of the election campaign that brought Prabowo to power last year, the scheme was rolled out without much fanfare on Monday, with no official launch and just 190 kitchens involved in preparing first meals for schoolchildren and pregnant women in more than 20 countries. Provincial officials said.

The free meal plan will be a herculean logistical effort when it is in full swing, with the aim of reaching 82.9 million of the country’s 280 million people by 2029.

However, Prabowo’s signature policy has been controversial, with previous estimates of its cost of $28 billion over five years raising concerns among some economists that it could damage Indonesia’s hard-earned reputation for fiscal prudence.

Prabowo defended the program last month as strategic in combating child malnutrition and stimulating growth in the Indonesian economy regionally. The project is expected to cost 71 trillion rupees ($4.39 billion) in its first phase this year, and will provide meals for 15 million people.

At a primary school in West Jakarta, staff carried trays of food to class and students picked them up one by one, finding rice, fried chicken, fried tofu, beans and oranges.

Hana Youhanna, the mother of a first-grader, said she hopes the program will continue because it makes her morning routine easier.

“Thank God, this is helping us. We usually had to work hard to prepare the food every morning, and now we don’t,” she said.

The government and army, which will help prepare and distribute the meals, are running pilot programs where trays of food including rice, chicken and milk are being distributed.

The number of meal recipients will gradually expand to 3 million by March and more throughout the year, according to Didik Prayode, spokesman for Prabowo’s office.