BGN Head: Teachers' participation in tasting free nutritious meals serves educational purpose

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Sudaryono has emphasised that the purpose of teachers joining in tasting the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) is not only to ensure safety but also to serve as an educational tool for students.

Sudaryono, familiarly known as Mas Dar, explained that teachers tasting the MBG is not an additional burdensome task, but rather a way to teach character education to students.

“It is not only the teachers who taste it. From the cooked food, it has already been tasted starting from the nutrition supervisor, the field assistant, and the school’s person in charge also receives an incentive to taste it. Only then is the food container distributed to all students, including teachers receiving meals. The aim is education — washing hands, praying, queuing — so there is character education,” he said on his official channel, quoted from Jakarta on Thursday.

He stressed that teachers receiving the MBG menu serves a nutritional education function that is not only beneficial for improving nutritional quality but also as a means of character building for higher-quality Indonesian human resources.

Previously, the BGN also stated that it had coordinated with disaster task forces and regional governments to arrange the technical distribution of the MBG programme to students when schools are closed due to forest and land fires.

Sudaryono said that through the coordination function involving disaster task forces, including the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), it is hoped that the Nutrition Service Unit (SPPG) or MBG kitchens can arrange the technical mechanisms in the field.

“We are organising this with a coordination mechanism that also involves school principals and parents of students,” said Sudaryono after a limited meeting with the Coordinating Ministry for Food in Jakarta on Wednesday (27/8).