Indonesia's Free Meal Scheme to Reach 80 Million Recipients by April, Behind Target

FREE LUNCH PROGRAM - JAKARTA. Indonesia's free school meals programme is expected to reach 80 million recipients by April, said the senior minister overseeing the food sector on Monday, falling further behind its targets.

The programme is aiming to reach around 55 million recipients by early January, Zulkifli Hasan told reporters after a meeting with government bodies to discuss food reserves for 2026.

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The scheme was President Prabowo Subianto's flagship campaign promise in 2024, with the aim of distributing food to as many as 83 million school children and pregnant women, but it has been controversial due to its high costs and mounting food safety concerns.

Since its launch in January, more than 11,000 children nationwide have been affected by food poisoning, according to data from the agency overseeing the programme.

Prabowo had originally targeted the programme's full roll-out by the end of 2025. However, in October the target was scaled back to around 70 million as a result of a kitchen shortage.

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Zulkifli did not explain why the targets have been scaled back again.

Indonesia has earmarked 171 trillion rupiah ($10.19 billion) for the programme this year under the original target, and the allocation for 2026 is set to be doubled to 335 trillion rupiah.