BGN to Reduce Free Nutritious Meal Recipients, Excluding Elite High School Students

The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) will reorganise the beneficiaries of the free nutritious meal programme (MBG), including by removing recipients categorised as financially capable. Deputy Head of BGN Agustina Arumsari stated that the recipients to be evaluated are students from elite high schools who currently receive pocket money from their parents of up to Rp 100,000 per day. “For example, high school students may no longer need to receive Free Nutritious Meals (MBG). Especially high-class high schools, where students’ pocket money is already Rp 100,000 to Rp 200,000 per day. They may no longer need this programme,” said Agustina Arumsari at the DPR RI, as quoted from a detikcom report on Tuesday (16/6/2026). According to her, reducing the number of beneficiaries in the upper-class high school student category will cut around 8 million recipients. Despite the reduction in the number of beneficiaries, Agustina assured that the programme will not lose its essence of improving nutrition for eligible recipients. “From temporary simulations, the number of beneficiaries can be reduced by around 8 million people. However, we are not eliminating the essence of the nutritional intervention carried out by the government,” she stressed. Agustina explained that this refocusing effort is necessary so that MBG beneficiaries are precisely targeted. BGN has coordinated directly with the Ministry of Health and other ministries and agencies to realise this effort. “This refocusing is needed so that government assistance is more targeted, so that the goal of improving nutrition is still achieved with more efficient budget use,” she explained. She emphasised that this reduction in beneficiaries will impact the programme’s budget requirements, and therefore the indicative budget ceiling for BGN in 2027, which previously reached approximately Rp 270.2 trillion to serve 81.5 million beneficiaries, will still be evaluated. Agustina confirmed that the government is recalculating budget needs in conjunction with the refocusing process carried out with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas. “Clearly there will be further efficiency. We are still calculating how much we can further streamline. The goal is for nutritional intervention to still be achieved, but with more focused beneficiaries,” she said.