Indonesia Redirects Free Meal Budget to Rural and Remote Regions

Bangla Press Desk:  The Indonesian agency overseeing President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme will “refocus” its budget by cutting back on new kitchens and targeting ​recipients in more remote areas, its new chief said on Thursday.Nanik ‌Sudaryati Deyang, the new chief of the National Nutrition Agency, was speaking a day after her predecessor was arrested on corruption charges relating to the way the scheme was run.

The details are as follows:

• Nanik ​said the new budget priorities came after the Southeast Asian country slashed the allocation for ​the programme this year to 268 trillion rupiah ($14.87 billion) from ⁠the initial 335 trillion rupiah.
• Nanik’s predecessor, Dadan Hindayana, was arrested for alleged corruption offences, ​including marking up procurement prices. Dadan was sacked by Prabowo on Tuesday.
• The ambitious ​free meals programme was a key part of Prabowo’s campaign to win the presidency in 2024, with the government budgeting at least $15 billion to provide free meals to 83 million ​children and pregnant women across the sprawling archipelago.
• Nanik said her agency was ​not focused on hitting the 83 million target for 2026 but on making sure existing ‌kitchens ⁠are up to code and healthy.
• She said on her watch, the agency would also focus on prioritising recipients living in remote areas.
• To ease the pressures on the state budget, the agency is considering other sources of funding for the programme, ​including grants or ​CSR programmes from ⁠private companies, she said.
• The agency would also determine which areas have sufficient kitchens and limit new applications, she said. ​There are over 27,000 kitchens operational across the archipelago.
• The free ​meals ⁠programme has come under intense scrutiny since its launch in January 2025, with investors wary of Prabowo’s big spending plans and worried that fiscal deficit thresholds could be ⁠challenged.
• The ​programme has been linked to cases of food ​poisoning that had affected at least 33,000 children as of April, according to Network for Education ​Watch, a non-governmental organisation.