National Nutrition Agency to Refocus Free Meal Programme Beneficiaries
Deputy Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Agustina Arumsari, stated that her institution will refocus or reorganise the beneficiaries of the free nutritious meal programme (MBG). The policy aims to ensure beneficiaries are accurately targeted while also achieving state budget efficiency.
“One of the improvement measures we are undertaking is the refocusing of beneficiaries,” Arumsari said following a closed-door meeting with House of Representatives Commission IX on Monday, 15 June 2026.
For the coming year, BGN has been allocated a budget of Rp 270.2 trillion to reach 81.5 million beneficiaries. However, this figure will still be evaluated as the agency proceeds with its overhaul process.
BGN has coordinated with the Ministry of Health and several other ministries to determine the groups of beneficiaries most in need. The Ministry of Health, she said, has provided input that nutritional interventions should be given to parents during pregnancy up to the child’s first thousand days of life. During that period, brain volume can be maximised. “Then up to two years there will be nutritional intervention, and then onwards to subsequent ages.”
BGN is currently reviewing beneficiary groups so that this government programme is more accurately targeted without diminishing its primary goal of improving public nutritional quality. “The objective is how to ensure the indicators for the nutritional intervention goals are achieved, but with more focused beneficiaries,” she said.
One of the measures for reorganising beneficiaries, Arumsari said, is removing senior high school (SMA) students from affluent families as a priority for MBG recipients. “That will already reduce the number by around 8 million beneficiaries,” she stated.
Arumsari emphasised that the reorganisation of MBG recipients is being carried out to ensure government assistance truly reaches groups in need. In addition to adjusting beneficiaries, BGN will also evaluate its nutritional fulfilment service units (SPPG), or MBG kitchens, as a consequence of the changes to the programme’s targets.
According to Arumsari, the kitchen reorganisation will be conducted after the beneficiary data has been updated. Some SPPGs may potentially be merged or even closed if audit results show they are not fit to operate.
BGN is also utilising the school holiday period to temporarily halt programme operations in schools and carry out comprehensive improvements, including validation of beneficiary data and evaluation of kitchen quality. “We will stop everything, we will update all kitchens, so that hopefully when the children return to school, we will be in a better state, and conditions on the ground will be more orderly,” Arumsari said.
Furthermore, BGN will scrutinise various 2026 budget items and maximise the use of assets purchased in 2025, including operational support facilities and information technology.
Nevertheless, Arumsari stressed that the entire efficiency and refocusing process is still under discussion and has not yet become a final decision, as it must still be consulted with the Ministry of Finance and the National Development Planning Agency. “We will continue to discuss. But what is clear is that there will be further efficiency measures,” she said.