76 Schools in Java to Be Excluded from Free Nutritious Meal Programme

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Agustina Arumsari announced that 76 schools on the island of Java have been identified as no longer requiring the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme, as they are considered capable of independently fulfilling their students’ nutritional needs.

“As of today, we have conducted data collection and have identified 76 schools in Java for the time being (that will no longer receive MBG),” Agustina Arumsari stated in Jakarta on Thursday.

She noted that the data is still provisional and will be continuously updated as the BGN improves data quality to support the policy of refocusing MBG beneficiaries.

Agustina explained that the budget previously allocated for these schools will be redirected to groups deemed to be in greater need of government nutritional intervention. These priority groups include children in disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers.

She stressed that the government will shift support to community groups with higher nutritional vulnerability and more limited access to nutritional fulfilment. The BGN, she said, is continuing to update data by considering several indicators, such as nutritional vulnerability, socio-economic conditions, and access to nutritional fulfilment. This data will subsequently serve as the basis for determining priority targets for MBG programme beneficiaries, so that government assistance can be more accurately targeted.

“Ultimately, we will truly be able to refocus the beneficiaries to those Indonesian children who genuinely need nutritional intervention from the government,” she said.