Free Nutritious Meals Programme to Target Islamic Boarding Schools on Java from Late October
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan said the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme would be extended to Islamic boarding schools on Java from the fourth week of October 2026, as part of efforts to broaden its reach.
“Implementation on Java will begin at the end of October, in the fourth week. So it is expected to be around the 25th,” Zulkifli said at a press conference on the results of an MBG coordination meeting in Jakarta on Monday.
He said Islamic boarding schools could submit student data directly to the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) to register them as programme beneficiaries.
“There are no intermediaries, no brokers. The data goes directly from the school to the BGN,” he said.
Zulkifli stressed that MBG distribution was based on beneficiary data to ensure orderly implementation and that the programme reached its intended recipients.
In addition to expanding services on Java, Zulkifli said the government was accelerating the activation of Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG) in disadvantaged, frontier and outermost regions, known as 3T areas.
He said 480 SPPG units had been completed in the first phase in eastern Indonesia, including Papua, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku.
In the second phase, which began on 14 October, a further 980 units were activated in 3T areas of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Bali.
Zulkifli said MBG beneficiary data was compiled using records from several ministries and agencies, including the Education Ministry, the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration, and the Health Ministry for data on young children.
The name-and-address-based data collection is intended to align beneficiary records held by different institutions.
He acknowledged that some prospective beneficiaries had yet to receive services because their data had not been entered into the system.
Data updates are therefore needed to enable MBG distribution to reach all intended recipients in line with the established records.