Free Nutritious Meals Programme May Be Limited to Lowest Income Students

Deputy Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Major General (Retired) Trenggono, said the agency is still studying a proposal that recipients of the free nutritious meal programme be limited to students from lower decile groups.

This responds to the green light given by President Prabowo Subianto for the BGN to evaluate the programme’s implementation. “There is indeed talk in that direction, but we are still studying it further,” he said when met at the DPR complex in Jakarta on Friday, 17 July 2026.

He could not yet confirm the number of MBG beneficiaries following this adjustment to target decile groups, including the data source that would be used as a reference. He said the President had given the BGN one month to complete the study.

“What is clear is that beneficiaries are the priority. Once it is finished, it will be announced,” Trenggono said.

On a separate occasion, BGN Deputy Head Agustina Arumsari said the government is not only studying whether beneficiaries should be prioritised for lower decile groups. In addition, there is a proposal that distribution of the meal-sharing programme be prioritised in underdeveloped regions.

“Those who need to be made more efficient, those who no longer need to receive the MBG programme, then they should no longer receive it. But those in the lower deciles, in underdeveloped regions, in areas with high stunting prevalence and so on, should be given it,” Arumsari said after a limited meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday, 15 July 2026.

She also said the per-portion menu value could differ between Java and eastern Indonesia. “Would it be the same (budget per portion) as in Java, at Rp 15,000?” she said.

The MBG programme has come under scrutiny after the Attorney General’s Office investigated alleged corruption in the programme’s governance at the National Nutrition Agency. Investigators have named several suspects, including former BGN Head Dadan Hindayana, two former deputies Sony Sanjaya Lodewyk Pusung and Asep Yusuf Somantri, Commissioner of PT Yasa Artha Trimanunggal (YAT) Andri Mulyono, and Chair of the Indonesia Food Security Review (IFSR) Foundation Glory Harimas Sihombing.