Free Nutritious Meals Programme Suspended During Eid Holiday

Indonesia’s free nutritious meals programme (MBG) will be suspended during the Eid al-Fitr holiday period in 2026. The programme will resume normal operations on 31 March.

The suspension of MBG during the Eid al-Fitr break was announced by the head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Dadan Hindayana. The policy is expected to save the government approximately 5 trillion rupiah.

“For Eid al-Fitr, I should clarify that for schoolchildren, the final distribution will be on 13 March. Then, for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and young children, it ended today,” Dadan told journalists at the office of the Attorney General in Jakarta on Tuesday, 17 March 2026.

Dadan stated that the MBG programme will resume normal operations at the end of March. “After that we will celebrate Eid al-Fitr and the nutritious meals programme will resume operations on 31 March,” he said.

The temporary suspension of MBG operations is not merely following the holiday calendar. The measure is viewed as a significant budgetary efficiency effort.

“The savings amount to approximately 5 trillion rupiah through this approach,” explained Dadan.

Dadan emphasised that BGN is currently conducting detailed calculations to ensure more efficient budget utilisation, particularly in response to global economic phenomena.

“Of course we must develop a sense of crisis and we are taking measures that allow for more efficient budget usage,” he stated.

BGN is known to have a budget allocation of 268 trillion rupiah. Dadan said the agency plans to optimise its main budget allocation and aims to avoid drawing on the government’s contingency reserve of 67 trillion rupiah.

“We will optimise the 268 trillion and attempt not to use the contingency reserve. So we will make full use of the 268 trillion rupiah,” he concluded.