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

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Sujimin, a partner of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), said one of the challenges faced in running the Nutrition Service Fulfilment Units (SPPG) is that sourcing quality raw ingredients for the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme is far from easy.

“Finding quality raw ingredients is not easy. The BGN requires that when purchasing ingredients we must not exceed local market prices — that is not easy, while we are expected to deliver good quality on time. And when problems arise, the kitchen is the first place people look,” he said during a BGN podcast followed online in Jakarta on Friday.

“We carry a moral and social burden towards the community. Unless the kitchen owner is somewhere unknown, for us the kitchen must be close at hand, within our control, because the kitchen partners are the first to bear the consequences when problems occur. This is a matter of integrity — the Red and White,” he said.

Sujimin acknowledged that one operational challenge is managing human resources, as some SPPG volunteers or workers have never cooked thousands of portions before and are starting from scratch in an MBG kitchen.

“Or the workforce must be drawn from local residents, whether young people or older residents, who have cooked casually all their lives, whereas our seasonings must all be fresh, and our cooking methods differ. Directing so many people, everything must be done well, from how to cut to how to cook,” he explained.

Earlier, BGN chief Sudaryono said evaluating the standards of MBG ingredients is one of the priorities for improving the governance of the national priority programme.

“All the ingredients must be right, with safety standards that must also be right, because we are learning from cases of food poisoning and so on. So, besides the processing methods, there are also issues with the raw ingredients, which may not be standardised or may be of poor quality,” he said.

He affirmed that President Prabowo Subianto has also ordered the BGN to sharpen its targets, so that the primary goal of improving children’s nutrition can be achieved while also having an impact on local economic growth.