Free Nutritious Meal Programme Halted During School Holidays, All Kitchens to Be Audited
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has decided to temporarily halt the distribution of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme during the school holidays. The policy is intended to allow for a thorough overhaul of the programme’s implementation, including an audit of all MBG kitchens.
Wakil Kepala BGN Agustina Arumsari stated that the school break would be used to evaluate various aspects of the MBG programme so that it can run more effectively once teaching and learning activities resume. “We are also taking advantage of this school holiday momentum. We will stop everything, we will audit all kitchens, so that hopefully when the children return to school, conditions on the ground will be better and more orderly,” Agustina said after a working meeting with Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) in Jakarta on Monday (15/6/2026).
Agustina confirmed that the suspension only applies during the school holiday period. During this time, BGN will focus on making improvements across various supporting sectors. “Yes, stop. For the duration of the school holidays, while we carry out improvements,” she stated.
According to Agustina, the kitchen audit is part of the corrective measures currently being undertaken by BGN. In addition to evaluating kitchen quality, the agency will also improve internal governance, human resources (SDM), and the data system for beneficiaries. She considers accurate data to be crucial so that every policy taken is truly on target. “We will carry out a transformation, starting from human resources, governance, to data. It is impossible for us to make policy without clear data,” she said.
Furthermore, BGN has begun coordinating with various ministries and institutions that already possess beneficiary databases. This step is being taken to refine the data before the programme is relaunched. On another front, BGN is also refocusing or sharpening the targeting of MBG beneficiaries. This policy is designed to ensure nutritional interventions are more precisely targeted by prioritising the groups most in need, while simultaneously increasing budget efficiency.
Agustina stressed that BGN’s main focus at present is ensuring beneficiaries truly match the target criteria, while the restructuring of kitchens is a subsequent impact of that policy. “We are talking about beneficiaries first, then the impact is kitchens and so forth. We will reorganise,” she concluded.