PDIP Proposes BGN Reduce Coverage of Free Nutritious Meal Beneficiaries
PDI Perjuangan politician Said Abdullah has assessed that the implementation of the free nutritious meal (MBG) programme requires further evaluation, particularly regarding the target number of student beneficiaries.
According to Abdullah, distributing MBG to 3,000 students at each communal kitchen (SPPG) lacks effectiveness. “The coverage could be reduced from the target of 3,000 per SPPG to a maximum of 1,500 to 2,000 students,” he stated in a written statement on Friday, 27 February 2026.
The chairman of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives believes that smaller coverage would enable SPPG to prepare meal packages more quickly. Consequently, distribution time to students could be adjusted accordingly.
“In this way, the food remains hygienic,” Said noted.
Furthermore, he described the MBG project as part of the government’s intervention to improve nutrition amongst Indonesian children. The East Java PDI Perjuangan regional chair noted that the average prevalence of chronic malnutrition amongst Indonesian children reaches 19 per cent.
“This percentage is considered moderately high; according to WHO standards, it should be below 10 per cent to be classified as low,” he stated.
As of January 2026, the MBG project has already reached 60 million beneficiaries. Some 22,091 SPPG have been operational since the government priority programme under President Prabowo Subianto was launched on 6 January 2025.
President Prabowo Subianto has claimed that his government’s implementation of MBG has been successful. According to him, this is evident from the number of beneficiaries far exceeding the number of poisoning cases from the MBG scheme.
“If we calculate how many thousands have been poisoned compared to how many billions of meals we have distributed, the statistic is 0.0087 per cent. What does that mean? It means 99.99 per cent of MBG efforts must be declared successful,” Prabowo stated on Monday, 2 February 2026.
The Gerindra Party chairman claimed that experts from the White House have expressed a desire to study the MBG programme. Additionally, he said the Rockefeller Institute has stated that MBG represents the best investment a nation can make.
Prabowo Subianto has repeatedly claimed that the MBG programme’s success is nearly flawless. Previously, during the Cabinet retreat at his private residence in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, on 6 January 2026, Prabowo stated that the MBG programme implementation success rate reached 99 per cent based on evaluation results.
During that event, Prabowo emphasised the importance of MBG as a strategic programme rooted in the state’s concern for Indonesian children’s nutritional conditions. Moreover, he noted that various studies indicate the percentage of Indonesian children suffering from malnutrition reaches more than 20 to 30 per cent.