Government Evaluates Free Nutritious Meals Programme: Incentive Overhaul and SPPG Classification

The distribution of the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme has been suspended during the school holiday period. Head of the Government Communication Agency (Kabakom), Muhammad Qodari, stated that this measure is part of an effort to improve the service quality of the Meal Provision Service Units (SPPG) in supplying MBG.

“Coincidentally, our schools are currently entering the holiday period, and one of the policies already taken by the leadership of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is to temporarily halt the activities of the kitchens supplying MBG during the holidays,” Qodari said in a written statement on Wednesday (17/6/2026).

“Because the holiday period is quite long, there is a good window of time and space for BGN to conduct a thorough evaluation,” he continued.

Qodari explained that the evaluation includes a temporary moratorium on the construction of new SPPGs, a restructuring of the incentive system, and the implementation of a grading system for the service quality of each SPPG. The government is prioritising strengthening the operational quality of existing SPPGs over increasing the number of new units.

“The first is a moratorium on building new SPPGs because the existing ones are deemed sufficient and will be reorganised. So, the focus is on the SPPGs that are already operational,” Qodari said.

According to him, BGN is also preparing an updated mechanism for providing incentives to SPPGs. The scheme will revert to a method linking the incentive amount to the number of beneficiaries served.

Furthermore, the government plans to implement a grading or classification system based on SPPG performance. Under this scheme, each SPPG will be grouped according to the quality of service provided.

“Going forward, the SPPGs themselves will undergo grading or evaluation. So, there will be classes of SPPGs: good ones will be A, average ones B, and poor ones C. These SPPG grading classes will affect their incentives, so the incentive figures will not be uniform,” Qodari stated.

Thus, Qodari explained, the amount of incentive received by an SPPG will be determined by two main factors: the number of beneficiaries served and the results of the quality assessment or grading of each SPPG.

In addition, Qodari explained that the government will tighten evaluations of various operational aspects that have been running so far. Supervision will be strengthened across multiple areas, ranging from facility conditions and the fulfilment of operational requirements to food processing procedures and health and hygiene standards.

“So, the focus is no longer on quantity, but on quality. Besides the quality of the SPPGs, improvements in efficiency are also expected going forward,” he said.