Poltracking Survey: Free Nutritious Meals Programme Most Felt Benefits, 55% of Public Satisfied

A Poltracking Indonesia survey shows that the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme is the one whose benefits are most felt by the public. As many as 55% of respondents expressed satisfaction with this flagship programme of the government of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

The survey was conducted from 2-8 March 2025 with a total of 1,220 respondents spread across all provinces. The survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews.

The respondents were selected randomly using the multistage random sampling method. The survey’s margin of error is +/- 2.9 percent with a 95 percent confidence level.

Poltracking’s Lead Researcher Masduri Amwari revealed five programmes that are most dominantly felt to be beneficial by the public. The survey shows that the MBG programme is the most beneficial felt by the public, with 36.5% of respondents rating it as the most useful programme. Below it are wage subsidy assistance (BSU), free healthcare services, the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP), and the Indonesia Healthy Card (KIS).

“The public feels that 36.5% [consider] the MBG programme the most beneficial, followed by wage subsidy assistance at 11%, then free healthcare services at 9.6%, KIP at 8.6%, and KIS at 7.2%. At least there are five programmes most dominantly felt to be beneficial,” said Masduri during a press conference on Poltracking’s YouTube, on Monday (13/4/2026).

Then, in terms of targeting accuracy, MBG again ranks first with 32.1%. This is followed by KIP, wage subsidy assistance, KIS, and free healthcare services. This finding shows that MBG not only excels in terms of benefits but is also rated as the most accurately targeted by the public.

“The most accurately targeted priority programme is again MBG in first place at 32.1%, then KIP at 10.4%, and Wage Subsidy Assistance at 9.1%, KIS at 8.9%, and free healthcare services at 8.5%,” said Masduri.

Furthermore, the survey delved specifically into the MBG programme. The results show that public awareness of this programme is very high, reaching 88%. However, public satisfaction is still at 55%.

“We also delved into the priority MBG programme; from this data, 88% of the public know about this very popular and phenomenal programme, but only 55% are satisfied with it,” said Masduri.

Masduri assesses that strategic communication steps from the government are needed to increase public acceptance of the MBG programme. According to him, various notes and inputs from the public also need to be a primary concern so that the programme’s implementation can be improved.

“This means the government needs to carry out strategic communication to increase public acceptance of free nutritious meals. So that satisfaction with the government’s performance related to MBG runs well, and most fundamentally, of course, to improve the notes and inputs that have so far been very numerous regarding the MBG programme,” he stated.