State Secretary Confident Free Nutritious Meal Budget Will Decrease After Evaluation

State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi stressed that there will be no budget cuts for the Free Nutritious Meal programme. However, according to calculations, the budget requirements will decrease in line with an evaluation of the programme’s management.

“It is not a cut. But from the calculation results, we believe there will be a reduction in the budget requirements for this Free Nutritious Meal programme,” said Prasetyo after a coordination meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Food building on Jalan Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta, Thursday (11/6/2026).

The process of revamping the Free Nutritious Meal programme is currently underway. He asked for time to complete it as soon as possible and to recalculate the requirements following the evaluation.

“Therefore, I ask for time to also calculate with the Ministry of Finance and with the National Nutrition Agency,” he said.

“So, from the structuring process, we will be able to calculate more carefully what the actual total budget required for this Nutritious Meal programme amounts to,” Prasetyo continued.

Based on the results of a coordination meeting between the Coordinating Ministry for Food and the National Nutrition Agency, the evaluation target is set to be completed within one month. It has been confirmed that the Free Nutritious Meal programme will continue to operate during the evaluation process.

“Our initial target is that this must be completed within one month. But of course, there are dynamics involved. Therefore, the first thing we emphasised is that what is already running must keep running, there must be no disruption,” he said.

Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan previously revealed a ballooning figure of over 13,000 nutrition fulfilment service points, or Free Nutritious Meal kitchens. This figure is a combination of kitchens in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost regions and those outside these areas.

Zulkifli Hasan indicated that this surge in meal kitchen points was related to alleged cases of point buying and selling. Outside the 3T regions, an initial projection of 21,000 kitchens was made, but the latest data shows 27,877 points.

“For example, there was buying and selling of points. The initial plan was supposed to be 21,000 points, but now there are already 27,877 points. So, there is a surge of 6,877 points. That was the report from Mrs Nanik earlier,” said Zulkifli Hasan after the coordination meeting.