BGN Partner Says Sourcing Quality Raw Materials for Free Nutritious Meals No Easy Task

A partner of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Sujimin, has stated that one of the challenges encountered during the operation of the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Unit (SPPG) is that sourcing high-quality raw materials for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme is no easy task. “Sourcing quality raw materials is not easy. The BGN requires that when shopping for raw materials, we must not exceed the local market price. This is not easy, while we are demanded to provide good quality and be punctual. Meanwhile, if a problem occurs, the first person sought is in the kitchen,” he said during a BGN podcast followed online in Jakarta on Friday. “We bear a moral and social burden to the community, unless the kitchen owner is untraceable. But for us, the kitchen must be close to me, something I can hold onto, because the first to be affected when there is a problem is the kitchen partner. This issue is about integrity, the Red and White,” he added. Sujimin acknowledged that another operational challenge faced is managing human resources, as some volunteers or SPPG workers have never cooked thousands of portions and are starting from scratch in the MBG kitchen. “Or the human resources must be taken from local residents, both young people and the elderly. They have been cooking casually all this time, whereas our seasonings must be entirely fresh, and our cooking methods are not the same. Directing so many people, everything must be done properly, from the way of cutting to cooking,” he explained. Previously, Head of the BGN, Sudaryono, stated that evaluating the raw material standards for the MBG is one of the priorities to be undertaken to improve the governance of this national priority programme. “All ingredients must be correct, with safety standards that must also be correct, because we are learning from poisoning incidents and other factors. So, besides the processing method, there is also the issue of raw materials, which perhaps are not standardised or maybe the raw materials are of not very good quality,” he said. He emphasised that President Prabowo Subianto has also ordered the BGN to sharpen its targeting, so that the main objective of improving children’s nutritional quality can be achieved, while simultaneously impacting local economic growth.