Cucu Mulyati received a distressing call last month: her 17-year-old son was gravely ill. His symptoms began shortly after he ate the free campus lunch, a meal comprising fried chicken, rice, lettuce, and strawberries.
Acep Sulaeman, her son, was rushed to a temporary clinic located about thirty minutes from his home village of Saguling in Indonesia.
“Hundreds of sick children filled the clinic,” Ms. Cucu recounted, describing her desperate search from one stretcher to another for her son.
Acep was among over 1,300 children in West Java Province’s Cipongkor District who became ill in late September, causing him to miss almost two weeks of school.
Indonesia is currently experiencing a concerning rise in food poisoning incidents. Thousands of children have fallen ill after consuming free school lunches, a component of a nationwide meal program launched by President Prabowo Subianto this past January. This initiative is a monumental endeavor for Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-populous nation, spanning a vast archipelago across three time zones.
Image: A little girl lying on a stretcher gets an IV drip. A woman in a hijab sits next to her. Caption: Over 1,300 students in West Java Province, Indonesia, became sick after eating free school meals. Credit: Timur Matahari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Experts have expressed doubts about the financial sustainability of the program, which also extends to pregnant women, given Indonesia’s delicate economic state. This initiative is officially known as M.B.G., an acronym for Makan Bergizi Gratis, meaning ‘free nutritious meals’.
For many, the program has been a blessing. Ms. Cucu noted that it significantly alleviated her family’s financial strain, and her daughter had been receiving free school meals for months without any health problems.
However, a series of repeated incidents involving contaminated food, with hundreds more falling ill just this past week, has deeply alarmed parents. Consequently, there have been protests and urgent demands to suspend or even permanently cancel the program.
Diah Saminarsih, founder of the Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives, a public health think tank, highlighted the most damaging problem: “The program lacks a proper regulatory framework. There are no clear guidelines, no operational manual, no established references – everything is open to individual interpretation.”
President Prabowo Subianto has staunchly defended the ambitious program, which was a central promise during his election campaign last year. He asserts that it has boosted nutrition for countless children, generated employment opportunities, and supported local farmers.
“We have successfully provided meals to 30 million individuals,” he stated on September 29th. “While there have been some flaws and instances of food poisoning, our calculations show that the deviation, deficiency, or error rate across all distributed food is extremely low, at just 0.00017 percent.”
Image: Protesters hold posters that read “STOP MBG!”. Caption: Citizens in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, protested on Wednesday, demanding the termination of the free meals program. Credit: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters
Nutritionist Tan Shot Yen sharply countered, saying, “Such a margin of error might be acceptable in a shoe factory, but here we are dealing with human lives, not manufactured products.”
Laboratory tests confirmed that the food responsible for sickening children in Cipongkor last month was contaminated with salmonella and Bacillus cereus bacteria.
Ms. Cucu, now deeply hesitant about her children consuming the free lunches, recalled Acep saying his body felt like it was burning and he struggled to breathe, even before he could finish his meal.
Disturbing reports include children finding maggots in their meals in East Java and South Sulawesi, and rice containing glass shards in the Riau Islands. A widely shared video even depicted kitchen staff in West Java washing food trays with soap and then rinsing them in murky, stagnant water.
Interactive Map: A map illustrating the provinces of West Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, and Riau Islands in Indonesia, where incidents of food poisoning linked to the program have been reported. Credit: By The New York Times
Ms. Diah’s think tank has meticulously recorded over 11,500 instances of food poisoning directly associated with the meal program.
The agency responsible for the program aims to reach almost 83 million beneficiaries and establish 32,000 kitchens by year-end. A substantial budget of 335 trillion rupiah (approximately $20 billion) has been allocated for 2026.
Nanik S. Deyang, the agency’s deputy chief, stated that unannounced inspections are being carried out in kitchens to ensure adherence to protocols, including the use of fresh ingredients and equipment sterilization.
“We oversee thousands of kitchens,” she acknowledged. “We concede that our supervision has been negligent, and for this, we offer our sincere apologies.”
Dr. Tan, the nutritionist, argued that the M.B.G. program should prioritize serving fresh, local foods instead of ultra-processed items such as sausages, prepackaged cookies, and cakes. Officials, however, maintain that kitchens must be innovative to ensure children consume the meals and food waste is minimized.
Image: Children in uniform eating from metal trays. Caption: Students at a junior high school in Cimahi, West Java, enjoy lunch on the inaugural day of the free-meal program in January. The initiative has since seen rapid expansion. Credit: Timur Matahari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“A key objective of M.B.G. is to educate both the public and the children,” she explained. “It’s possible to create appealing meals for children that also adhere to nutritional guidelines.”
While public health experts and civil society organizations commend the program’s commendable goals, they warn that its deficient planning, absence of clear standards, and flawed implementation risk exacerbating the very issues it seeks to resolve. Concerns have also been raised about the substantial involvement of Indonesia’s armed forces and police in the M.B.G., arguing against their role in civilian initiatives. Critics further suggest that the program’s rapid expansion may be influenced by political motives, potentially benefiting President Prabowo’s allies.
Conversely, the government insists its sole intention is to assist its citizens.
Ms. Diah emphasized, “Genuine public health cannot be achieved without strong political commitment. While such commitment is valuable, it must not be exploited.”
For many, the decision to expand the program without first rectifying its flaws is a major worry. The number of target beneficiaries for M.B.G. has surged fivefold from its original goal of 17 million people.
Ms. Diah cautioned that “increasing the target beneficiaries while simultaneously overburdening the operational process will inevitably lead to more victims. Rather than delivering positive change, this program is, tragically, poisoning children.”