Zulhas Mandates All SPPG to Source Free Nutritious Meal Ingredients from Villages

Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan has stressed that raw materials for the Free Nutritious Meal programme must be purchased from villages. He revealed that many nutritional service fulfilment units (SPPG) have committed violations regarding the governance of raw material provision. "It has also been found that many are not compliant with the governance standards. The governance requires SPPG to source its raw material suppliers from that village, from that location, whether it is the Red and White Village Cooperative, BUMDes, MSMEs, or other village enterprises," Zulhas told reporters at the Coordinating Ministry for Food in Central Jakarta on Thursday. He stressed that every SPPG must have multiple suppliers from the surrounding area. This, he said, is so that the programme’s economic benefits can be widely felt by the local community. "Therefore, SPPG must have many suppliers. Well, Mrs Nanik and colleagues have also found many violations occurring there," he stated. Zulhas explained that this directive is part of President Prabowo Subianto’s instruction that the Free Nutritious Meal programme should not only improve the nutritional quality of the community but also become a driver for regional economies. "Because on the orders of the President, this SPPG must be able to grow the economy in the regions. For example, in East Java, falling egg prices could be lifted by the National Nutrition Agency because it purchases there, for instance. And so on and so forth," he said.